“It is too easy to forget about the continuing environmental threats to our planet amid a worldwide pandemic. Those threats did not disappear in 2020, and this thought-provoking work produced by Force Majeure is the reminder we all need…This work, more than anything, challenges us not to continue to look away” – Veronica Hannon.
4 stars
It is too easy to forget about the continuing environmental threats to our planet amid a worldwide pandemic. Those threats did not disappear in 2020, and this thought-provoking work produced by Force Majeure is the reminder we all need even as we sit side-by-side in our masks, an audience of bandits, as Sydney Festival artistic director Wesley Enoch was want to call us on opening night.
From the opening moments when after a crack of sound, a wall of green light beams softens, and we see cocoons resembling alien eggs suspended from the ceiling, this piece promises to be a treat for the eyes. With a company such as this, you expect a dazzling visual experience but we also get a very emotional story. Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is only a jump-off point for exploring what it takes to incite change and treat the climate crisis as a real crisis.
It is something of a theatrical coup to bring together such different but gifted talents as Pamela Rabe, Paul Capsis and Olwen Fouéré. Working with thirteen young performers, chosen from 300 or so who auditioned, it proves a collaboration that works for everybody – for the actors and the audience.
Rabe, Capsis, and Fouéré each take on a season. Rabe as beautiful and commanding as ever glides across the stage as summer. Capsis is at his mischievous best as autumn and Fouéré, an actor in full charge of her craft and charisma makes for an icy-crisp winter.
The young performers are lovely. They are Isabel Bantog, Owen Beckman-Scott, Luka Brett-Hall, Maddie Brett-Hall, Imala Cush, Niamh Cush, Nicholas Edwards, Ember Henninger, Piper Kemp, Poppy McKinnon, Julia Piazza, Tallulah Pickard, and Louis Ting. I wanted to list all their names because they are the real heart of this story. They allow their bodies to be so vulnerable and expressive in movement, and there is such adrenalised commitment on their part.
The narrative takes a sharp, desperately sad turn in the last segment and as it moves towards its powerful close, it is difficult to watch these youngsters in turmoil, aware of what is at stake, taking bold action and knowing it just might be too late. I have never so desired a new awakening as a plot turn, but this piece is not about wish fulfilment. It clearly wants us to recognise the anxiety and rage of those born in the new millennium forced to live with past generations’ inaction.
While I felt the storytelling’s ambitions are not wholly achieved in Tom Wright’s script, I was impressed by what the creatives achieved in the vast space. The vivid stage pictures and enabling of dynamic movement are due to director Danielle Micich with Marg Horwell (set and costumes) and Damien Cooper (lighting). There is a haunting score by Kelly Ryall performed by the composer himself on an electronic keyboard with Niki Johnson on percussion, Freya Schack-Arnott on cello, and Susie Bishop on violin and contributing exquisite vocals.
Leaving the theatre, it was impossible to get the words of activist Greta Thunberg out of my head, “The eyes of all future generations are on you, and I say if you do not act, we will never forgive you.” This work, more than anything, challenges us not to continue to look away.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
The Last Season
(Force Majeure, Sydney Festival)
Carriageworks
Until 10 January
