Sydney Reviews

Domain names on the internet still retain Tim Berners Lee’s nerdy prefix www – the World Wide Web. After seeing Gareth Boylan’s new production Seeing Unseen, the terror of its literal meaning dawned on me. It is a ubiquitous phrase camouflaged by use. In fact we are so dependent and so entangled in this web that we no longer see it. And because of this we don’t associate the meaning of our “web” with its arachnid progenitor. We don’t realize that webs are really traps. Intricate, geometric and invisible, but still a trap. And just as insects become ensnared by what they cannot see, Seeing Unseen seems to be suggesting that we too, are now ensnared.

This is a short play – a single hour. Director Gareth Boylan ties his cast of three into an elaborate and menacing knot. It’s a new piece, independently produced and workshopped by actors Kerri Glasscock, Michael Pigott and Michael Cullen. This is not an easy piece of drama to consume. It won’t leave you with the warm and fuzzys. But the questions it asks are real and significant.

The play revolves around the lives of two characters, a man and woman of indeterminate age and occupation. They live in an undisclosed city in an apartment with a view. They recognize their own environment through a film of amnesia, leaving them with associations, but no memories. The man is always late, the woman always worried. Without memories they are strangely innocent and wholly reliant on the assistance of an obsessive observer. At first his power over them is charming and detached. He is conscientious bordering on the obsequious, but when challenged he reveals himself to be ruthless and powerful.

I was at once reminded of Adam and Eve and the Serpent, or Winston and Julia and Big Brother. I came to read him as a personification of the internet, a contemporary deity (Janus-like) of knowledge and ignorance. He is nameless and sees everything, records everything, answers everything, but lacking any insight he is equally confused, equally ignorant. This ignorance is unstable and the spectre of a chaotic and compulsive need for control is reminiscent of A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000.

The play’s dialogue is taught, delivered at speed. It has a recursive quality, obsessing over details and pre-occupied with the neurotic and absurd. The stage is small and masterfully exploited to impose by turns claustrophobia and intimacy (sometimes both). Clever lighting allows for streetscapes and showers in silhouette and for clever scene changes. The acting is ambitious and committed and shifts easily between balletic dream sequences and convincing realism.

I was impressed. This is raw theatre. It is small scale and independent, but executed with professionalism and intensity. The actors mingle post-show and I was fascinated to learn a little about the plays inception. Celebrating its 10th year the Old 505 feels both relevant and decidedly avant-garde. It’s vital that actors and directors have the space and freedom to do dangerous work like this. Work that is challenging and ambiguous, work that questions what is happening to us in the neon light of the digital future. Seeing Unseen throws down the gauntlet. I encourage you to pick it up.


The Old 505 Theatre Co. presents
Seeing Unseen

Directed by Gareth Boylan

Venue: Old 505 Theatre | 505/342 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills
Dates: 8 – 26 April 2015
Times: Wednesday to Saturday 8pm | Saturday 7pm
Tickets: $33 – $22
Bookings: www.trybooking.com/EVPE