Welcome to the Machine by George Huitker. Huitker Movement Theatre at Theatre 3, October 29 - November 2, 8pm.
This multi-media theatre piece is a kind of Orwellian 1984 set in 2222. It has the same dire warnings, where Big Brother becomes Dr Oliver Hermanni (Oliver Baudert), a Pygmalion figure who creates a set of clones which cannot survive in the real world. Huitker himself refers to the Frankenstein story and has been strongly influenced by the set design of the 1931 film by James Whale.
As in all these earlier stories, the creations by the mastermind seek their freedom, with disastrous results for themselves and their creators. The interesting twist in Huitker's version is that Dr Hermanni experiments with creativity itself in a world in which creativity has been effectively destroyed by the arts becoming no more than technological entertainment. He uses visual images from earlier times - Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries - to stimulate his clones, who respond in movement imagery.
The clones, numbered One to Six, each represent a different kind of artist - writer, musician, dancer and so on - who finally tell stories of their childhoods where adults failed to recognise or appreciate their natural creativity. Interestingly enough, in keeping with Huitker's theme, this section of the work is the only part which is dramatically powerful, as each character's experience is told to us but also played out in action by the whole group. We recognise ourselves in their fears and frustrations.
Technically the multimedia mix of audio and digital video is very well done, taking on a life of its own. In a way this begs the question of whether theatre can justifiably rely on technological entertainment in its own right, without deeply emotional human performance. It's hard to say whether the conundrum Welcome to the Machine leaves us with is intended by Huitker, or is an accidental result of his attempt to turn philosophical considerations into a theatrical event.
So, though a curate's egg, this work is worth seeing, especially for younger people, as a re-working of an old tradition in modern style. If Huitker can afford it, he should seek criticism and professional development further afield. It's a pity Meryl Tankard is not still in Canberra.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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