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| Emily & Angus are HERE at Melbourne Fringe |
In the beginning, there is darkness. But it’s not the beginning. It’s ten years after THERE first premiered at Melbourne Fringe and a week since I first saw it. Emily and Angus are getting the band back together, but is that a good idea?
We’re in an era of film and television revivals. Star Wars is no longer a nostalgia trip.
Twin Peaks has reawakened nightmares
from a quarter of a century ago. And theatre’s ephemeral nature means you can
never go back, not even in a remount with the same creative team. Things have
changed. Emily and Angus have changed.
Elbow Room has changed.
Our two intrepid performers are trapped inside a machine that
feeds off narrative; it takes and takes and takes. Emily figures it out early
on, but she’s been inside the machine longer. She recognises the signs and the
theatrical trickery of THERE is turned back on to figure out where they are and
where they must head next.
HERE is about nostalgia and the fear of looking back. It’s
also about context and the empathy gap and how an audience perceives a
performer and how we perceive ourselves. It mines the history of THERE but also
alludes to other shows Elbow Room have made, like Prehistoric and We Get It.
You can feel the history, even if you weren’t there. Angus knows.
Sometimes Angus has watched from the dark and he knows what he’s been missing
out on.
It’s hard to critique these performances; they resonate with
such truth that it’s easy to believe these questions were wrestled with in the
rehearsal room as much as they are on stage. Emily and Angus are Emily and
Angus. They are in complete control, even as the machine groans away, ready to
take another bite.
The original Elbow Room team, including director Marcel
Dorney, have found their way back together. Their latest show is absurd and funny and moving and knows nostalgia is about pain as much as joy.
Mmaybe they aren’t playing the same music they once made, but the echoes of the past can be heard clearly and they’ve forged a new work that resonates with age, wisdom, experience and a deep love of theatre.
Mmaybe they aren’t playing the same music they once made, but the echoes of the past can be heard clearly and they’ve forged a new work that resonates with age, wisdom, experience and a deep love of theatre.
HERE runs until September 29th. Don’t miss it. It
may be another decade before they do it again.
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