backRealTime issue #57 Oct-Nov 2003 pg. 41
© Keith Gallasch; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]
The second Last Supper was one of the performance highlights of 2001, unruly and discursive, full of outrageous gags, wit, alcohol, songs and political barbs delivered by a team of experienced and new players. From the same company, Version 1.0, comes Questions to ask yourself in the face of others (Performance Space, May 30-Jun 8). It’s trim and taut, a 2-hander postmodern, post-apocalyptic parable as performed by Adam and Eve who happen to be performance artists and scouts in uniform. In a mix of deadpan declamation and neurotic outburst, David Williams and Beck Wilson play out the frayed couple’s return to the scene of the ‘original’ crime (a burnt-out bourgeois paradise) generating an increasingly loopy re-mythologising of their fate, counterpointed with a physical struggle that stops barely short of violence. They tell their audience, a jury of peers briefly back from the dead, “We were prepared, like good little scouts, but we weren’t ready enough...We performed poorly.” They are, it seems, seeking a verdict, “are we responsible for the world being fucked?” But is it absolution they’re after? “We may not be innocent, but we cannot stand to be guilty any longer.” A sometimes uneasy hybrid of script-driven schematism and rigorous physical performance, Questions to ask yourself... nonetheless hits home as conservative and right wing politicians continue to consign guilt and compassion to the rubbish bins of political correctness and history. In its rare outings, Version 1.0 is an important addition to the Sydney performance scene—we need to see more of them. Their next show, CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident), scheduled for March 2004 is now in development with Danielle Antaki, Nikki Heywood, Stephen Klinder, Christopher Ryan, Yana Taylor, David Williams and Beck Wilson in collaboration with Paul Dwyer, Samuel James, Simon Wise and members of Perth’s PVI collective.
