Street performance – but not as you know it – is set to hit Adelaide when Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre returns to touring in March 2021.
The company plans to showcase its play, small metal objects, at Adelaide Fringe Festival from March 2 to 8.
“The ensemble is excited to be working again,” Back to Back executive director Tim Stitz said.
“Premiering in 2005, small metal objects was last presented to Australian audiences over 10 years ago, and this 2021 Adelaide season sees it return to the city for the first time since 2006.
“We relish the opportunity to share the work with Australian audiences, old and new, once again.”
The play features Geelong actors and co-writers Simon Laherty and Sonia Teuben in star roles.
The show unfolds amid pedestrian traffic against the backdrop of a city.
On a raised seating bank with individual sets of headphones, the audience is wired into an intensely personal drama being played out somewhere in the crowd.
Gary and Steve are the kind of men who normally escape notice.
But here they play an inadvertent but pivotal role in the night of two ambitious executives they’ve arranged to meet for a transaction.
As the intimacy of their situation develops, small metal objects becomes a sly and luminous depiction of everyday issues most take for granted.
The play explores how respect is withheld from outsiders – the disabled or unemployed – who society sometimes deems unproductive.
“Here the company considers how a person’s worth in society is defined by their productivity,” Stitz said.
“It’s a theme very familiar to these performers and even timelier in 2021 than it was at its premiere in 2005.
“Set against the shifting backdrop of a city weighed down by economic uncertainty, the notion that humans are becoming a kind of coinage couldn’t be called into starker relief.”
The tour comes after COVID-19 halted Back to Back’s national tour of its award-winning play The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes.
The company had previously toured the US with the show.
“We’re pretty thrilled to be a company that does a lot of touring, both nationally and internationally,” Stitz said.
“This is just the beginning of our plans for 2021 as we eagerly await the chance to connect with audiences in person once more.
“We look forward to sharing more announcements with you in the coming months.”
Details: backtobacktheatre.com/projects/small-metal-objects.
