Download Back to Back Theatre, Small Metal Objects

Back to Back Theatre, Small Metal Objects
(Off site – public space TBD)
January 22-26
Small Metal Objects
The venue is the city, in any undercover public space with high volume
pedestrian traffic. The audience is seated on a raised bank at one end of the
space, individual sets of headphones providing an intimate and exclusive
soundtrack of dialogue and music.
"When the show begins, you’re not sure whom you should be watching. Steve
and Gary are a quiet, slightly lonely pair existing on the fringe of society, and we
are initially unable to see them amidst the eddying current of people
crisscrossing the space. When our protagonists emerge, it is only gradually, two
points slowly moving towards us through the crowd. We are the only witnesses to
their small and intensely personal drama, passers-by oblivious to their
conversation." From John Bailey, Beat 2005
Show Description
SMALL METAL OBJECTS is the story of two invisible men and their inadvertent
role in the downfall of a business awards night. A funny and disturbing
examination of our cultural and individual identity, our visibility determined by our
capacity to produce.
SMALL METAL OBJECTS explores the social implications of the '
financialisation'
of our culture. Its theme has particular relevance for those who are traditionally
perceived as less '
productive'
- people with disabilities, the unemployed,
outsiders, and the third world. The production is an examination of '
respect'
, or
'
lack of respect'
, which consists of not being seen and not being accounted for as
full human beings.
SMALL METAL OBJECTS delivers theatre to the mass public, lifting a seating
bank from an auditorium and placing it within everyday experience. The audience
becomes an installation for the general public; the general public becomes the
extras of a dramatic narrative. It is a theatrical spectacle, generated by the
powerful interplay of audience and public, oscillating between the roles of
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spectator and spectacle. The narrative is like a membrane, containing the
tension, and allows a simple fable, of a financial transaction gone wrong, to
unfold.
On a practical level, SMALL METAL OBJECTS requires no set or lighting.
SMALL METAL OBJECTS offers potential producers a quality contemporary
theatre experience, placed in the heart of a city’s commercial landscape.
About the Company
Back to Back Theatre was founded in Geelong in 1987 to create theatre with
people who are perceived to have a disability. It has gone on to become one of
Australia’s leading creative voices, focusing on moral, philosophical and political
questions about the value of individual lives.
With an ensemble of six actors, Back to Back creates work that is idiosyncratic,
passionate and at times confronting. Back to Back’s ensemble is made up of
actors considered to have intellectual disabilities, a group of people who, in a
culture obsessed with perfection and surgically enhanced ‘beauty’, are the real
outsiders, and this position of marginality provides them with a unique and at
times subversive view of the world. The stories they create explore “the cold dark
side” of our times, be it the sexuality of people with disabilities, the uses of
artificial intelligence and genetic screening, unfulfilled desire, the inevitability of
death, and what the fixation with economic rationality and utilitarianism means for
people excluded from the ‘norm’.
With Bruce Gladwin as Artistic Director, Back to Back has nurtured a unique
artistic voice, placing the ensemble at the centre of social and cultural dialogue.
Through a process of research, improvisation, and scripting, and a collaboration
between the ensemble, Artistic Director and invited guest artists, new work is
realised.
Back to Back upends assumptions about who can be an artist. It also contributes
to expanding debates about performance space, alternative non-verbal
performance, and the relationships between actors and audiences. Critical and
audience praise for its productions MENTAL (1999), DOG FARM (2000), SOFT
(2002) and SMALL METAL OBJECTS (2005) has seen Back to Back’s work
extend beyond premiere status into national and international arenas.
The production SOFT, winner of The Age Critics'Award for Creative Excellence
at the 2002 Melbourne Festival, toured to Switzerland and Germany in 2003,
while SMALL METAL OBJECTS was awarded The Age Critics'Special
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Commendation at the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival. Since its
presentation at the 2006 Australian Performing Arts Market, SMALL METAL
OBJECTS has received numerous national and international enquiries for
presentation and is touring nationally and internationally from 2007 onwards.
In April 2006 Back to Back was awarded the prestigious 2005 Sidney Myer
Performing Arts [Group] Award by the Myer Foundation in recognition of its longterm contribution to Australian theatre.
BIOGRAPHIES & CREDIT
Bruce Gladwin (Director and Co-devisor)
Bruce Gladwin specialises in the development of adventurous theatrical work,
working as director, designer and writer. He currently works as Artistic Director at
Back to Back Theatre for which he has created five works: DRAG RACERS IN
LOVE (1999), MENTAL (1999), DOG FARM (2000), SOFT (2002) and SMALL
METAL OBJECTS (2005). Bruce’s other directing credits include THE ISLAND
with Lano & Woodley and BLUE RINSE CLUB with Museum of Modern Oddities
for the 2004 Melbourne International Festival.
Simon Laherty (Performer and Co-devisor)
Simon first worked at Back to Back when he was a student at Nelson Park
School, devising and performing in DRAG RACES IN LOVE (1999). From 2001
to 2003 Simon was an important contributor to the development and growth of
Theatre of Speed, taking lead roles in ARNOLD, FISHMAN and the short film 12
WAYS TO OPEN A DOOR. Simon joined Back to Back in 2003. In 2004, Simon
starred in the independent short film RODNEY. In 2005 he played the character
of Lucky Phil in the feature film NOISE.
Sonia Teuben (Performer and Co-devisor)
Sonia has been creating powerful, passionate, intensely emotional and at times
confronting performances with Back to Back Theatre since she joined the
company in 1993. Sonia brings her own unique and highly personal view of the
world to each character she creates. Her one-woman play, GINA’S STORY
(1995) has been published in a collection of stories about women with intellectual
disabilities. Sonia has performed in joint productions with Melbourne Workers
Theatre, Handspan, Circus Oz and Arena Theatre Company.
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Sonia stars in the 2002 short film PORN STAR (originally part of Back to Back’s
DOG FARM) which has screened at festivals in Germany, Montreal and London.
Sonia has worked with Muse Company in Tokyo, toured with Back to Back’s
acclaimed SOFT to Germany and Switzerland and most recently created the
character of Gary for SMALL METAL OBJECTS.
Hugh Covill (Sound Design)
Hugh Covill is a composer; sound designer and audio engineer at the leading
edge of artists working with surround sound. Most recently he was awarded the
inaugural “Technical Design Initiative” from the Australian Council for the Arts.
The initiative afforded him the opportunity to undertake specific research in
electro-acoustic modelling and sound design in the United States of America. He
is a staff writer for “Audio Technology”, an Australasian technical journal.
Shio Otani (Costume Designer)
Shio designs for a variety of media including costume, graphics and installations.
After relocating from Japan to Australia, she completed a BA in dance at the
Victorian College of the Arts and then studied fashion design at Box Hill Institute.
Shio has worked with choreographers Shelley Lasica and Kage Physical
Theatre, with filmmaker Rhian Hinkley, artist David Rosetzky and Back to Back
on the award winning works SOFT (2002) and SMALL METAL OBJECTS (2005).
Andrew Livingston (Production Manager)
Andrew Livingston (with Ben Cobham) is a co director of Bluebottle. Specialising
in lighting design, from concept to design development, documentation and
project management, Bluebottle has a strong theatrical background and has
been designing in creative and unconventional ways in theatres, galleries and
museums, for installations, music, exhibitions, dance and special events.
Genevieve Picot (Performer)
Genevieve has had an extensive career in film, theatre and television for over 20
years. She has been nominated for two AFI Awards, and received the Film
Critic’s Circle Award in 1991 for Proof, as well as both the New Zealand film and
television awards for Best Female Performance in a Dramatic Role for Bread and
Roses. Highlights of her career on stage include Olive in the MTC’s 40th
Anniversary production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, which toured
nationally and the productions of The Great Man (STC ), Arcadia (MTC) and The
Comedy of Errors (The Church Theatre) Genevieve performed in The Aunt’s
Story at the Melbourne Festival, Belvoir St and the Brisbane Festival in 2002.
And she has just returned from a national tour of Barmaids.
Jim Russell (performer and Co-devisor)
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Jim has been working extensively as an actor for the past 15 years. This is his
third production with Back to Back. Jim was part of the devising cast of the 2002
Melbourne Festival show, Soft. When he is not working with Back to Back, Jim
works mostly in television. In recent years he’s been working in the Channel 9
sketch show Comedy Inc.
Credits
Devisors Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sonia Teuben, Genevieve Morris, Jim Russell
Director Bruce Gladwin
Performers Variable
Sound composition and design Hugh Covill
Costume design Shio Otani
Script Consultant Melissa Reeves
Production Manager (Australia) Andrew Livingston / bluebottle3
Stills Photography Jeff Busby
Tour Coordinators (Europe) Aicha Boutella, Olivia Morin / Quaternaire
Tour Coordinator (Australia) Gabby Walters / bluebottle 3
Associate Producer Sarah Ford / Quaternaire
Artistic Director Bruce Gladwin
Executive Producer Alice Nash
REVIEWS
Funny, generous and simple theatre
ROBERT JARMAN | 30 March 2007| Hobart Mercury
I'
M not going to tell you what happens.
To give away any of it would be to spoil the beauty, wonder, humour and, at
times, seat-of-the-pants vulnerability of the whole offering.
But I want to convince you to go. How to persuade you? Why should you spend
your hard-earned bucks on something I refuse to tell you about?
The purchase of a theatre ticket is an investment in other worlds. Small Metal
Objects invites us to look completely afresh at our own familiar world. It does this
in a most enjoyable and very surprising way.
Then it takes you on an unguided tour of worlds within our world. Along the way,
you will encounter many, perhaps alien, sensibilities: profound and simple, tender
and rapacious. It is a funny, moving, generous and beautiful journey.
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Does that all sound a bit arty? Don'
t worry -- it isn'
t. In fact, Small Metal Objects
is as accessible as theatre gets. Yet it is also one of the most unusual theatrical
experiences you will have.
I hope you'
re intrigued. Now, satisfy your curiosity. Go see it. The world will look
different afterwards.
A very public drama
Debra Bela | 10 February 2007| The Courier-Mail
Are you, asks Debra Bela, in on this performance?
THERE'
S a drug deal about to go down in Brisbane'
s Queen Street Mall. Every
day there will be up to 160 "witnesses" to the crime.
They are the ones sitting on theatre seats with headphones on. The trick is
getting them to talk.
In Sydney and Melbourne, people have tried performing acrobatic tricks on
skateboards to get their attention.
Others have tried telling jokes, or attempted to take the headphones off to ask
that burning question: "What is going on?"
Melbourne theatre director Bruce Gladwin, 40, is fascinated by the interplay,
even though he'
s the one who has made it possible.
When he first decided to work with Geelong-based theatre company, Back to
Back Theatre, on the production Small Metal Objects two years ago, he could not
have dreamed its public impact.
The premise is very simple:
Devise a show involving a planned drug deal between four characters; take the
audience out of the typical theatre setting and relocate them to a public space,
give them headphones so only the audience is privy to the unfolding drama; have
the main actors blend into the human traffic so they can be heard but not seen
for part of the show; and then watch as passers-by try to work out what'
s going
on.
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"That power shift between the audience and the public is a large part of what the
show is, it'
s almost a second narrative that exists on top of the story that takes
place between the four characters," Gladwin says.
The story is a moving, personal story about displaced people.
Gladwin is leading the company on a national tour of Small Metal Objects before
heading to Europe in June. A US tour is set for next year.
The fact that his company is made up of people with a perceived intellectual
disability only adds to the multi-dimensional nature of the work.
"It feels good to be presenting work in mainstream festivals and mainstream
venues and we'
re a company with disabilities and it meets some of our social
objectives on advocacy," he says.
Not that Gladwin, in eight years as artistic director of Back to Back Theatre, can
even recognise the type of disability some of his actors are perceived to have.
"From a government point of view, these people are entitled to a disability
pension, but if you ask some of the actors in the company, they don'
t identify
themselves as having an intellectual disability. And we'
re not empowered to ask."
Some have Down syndrome, or an acquired brain injury, all have a passion for
the arts, and there are many more hoping to be part of the company in the future.
When an acting position was advertised three years ago, 87 applications were
received from as far as Adelaide.
"My experience of working with people with disabilities is pretty limited, especially
in a professional context because people with disabilities don'
t get employed,
especially in the arts," Gladwin says.
"People work in a community context or attached to a health centre, or some
one-off initiative, but to be working with someone with an intellectual disability
who is a crafted artist is fairly rare."
Back to Back Theatre has two sections -- its ensemble of five full-time actors
which put on productions throughout the year, and its community arm which
develops projects with a public outcome including running year-long workshops
for young people with intellectual disabilities, which is often where they find up
and coming actors for their core ensemble.
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"We source some people from Melbourne, but we tend to employ a lot of people
who are from Geelong who have moved to Melbourne, it'
s only an hour away,"
he says.
Gladwin is based in Melbourne with his wife, actress Daniela Farinacci, although
he rents a house in Geelong during the week.
The couple were both in Sydney last month for the Sydney Festival, Gladwin
performing while Farinacci is working on a major crime mini-series for SBS.
"It'
s a pretty difficult lifestyle," Gladwin says. "I always think if you work in the arts
you need to marry a lawyer or a merchant banker, it'
s the only way you can
survive."
In its 20-year history, Back to Back Theatre has overcome major funding
obstacles to be able to grow its international touring arm and last year it won the
Australian Business Arts Foundation'
s Giving Award for its innovation in
attracting philanthropic support.
"When the company first started, as a society we were going through a period of
deinstitutionalisation, there was a lot of resources for integrating people with
disabilities into the community and people could see the outcomes for the policy
that we were encouraging," Gladwin says.
These days funding is neither consistent nor guaranteed. The company receives
support for operating costs through the Australia Council, Arts Victoria and the
Department of Family and Community Services and operates as a supported
employment service for people with disabilities. But to make a show such as
Small Metal Objects for national or international touring, specific arts funding and
philanthropic support is needed.
"What I love about this show, and touring is that I'
m never bored watching it, it'
s
delightful, the fact that it takes place in chaos means every show is completely
different."
By Damian Madden
Stage Noise with Diana Simmonds | January 13th, 2007
This show takes theatre out of the theatre.
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It is very difficult to describe a show like Back To Back Theatre’s Small Metal
Objects. It paints such a vivid and realistic picture of our world that at times it
seems to slip between fiction and reality.
The production doesn’t take place in a theatre but rather in the ‘real’ world, with
the ferry/train terminal at Circular Quay providing the backdrop for the drama.
While sitting in a construction of temporary bleachers, the audience (wearing
headphones that connect the audience to actors) watch a simple story unfold
amongst members of the general public.
The story (involving a yuppie trying to score some ‘gear’ for a party and the
relationship between the two men he is trying to get it from) isn’t what is
important, it is the act of watching (and in turn watching the bemused passers by
watching in return) that is fascinating.
With Small Metal Objects Back To Back has devised a show about people who
may otherwise be invisible to society (disabled, poor, on the fringe) and through
presenting it in a real world setting forces us to acknowledge and – possibly
empathise with these people. Walking away after the show you find yourself
noticing more of the world and people around you, a small indication of the
impact of this production.
Just from a staging point of view theatre made wholly within a public space is a
daring undertaking. The cast of four (Simon Laherty, Genevieve Morris, Jim
Russell and Alan V Watt) are all exceptional, each bringing something very
different to the production, their varying levels of disability being both irrelevant
and central to the action. The direction of Bruce Gladwin allows the actors the
flexibility to move within their ever evolving performance space and the sound
design/score by Hugh Covill subtly supports the action.
Don’t miss this one; it is unique, touching and very, very good.
TAKE IT TO THE STREET
Clare Morgan | 1 January 2007| The Sydney Morning Herald
When the audience applauded wildly at the end of the first public performance of
Small Metal Objects, Bruce Gladwin was stunned. "It totally took me by surprise.
I never expected people in a public space to be so open," says Gladwin, the
artistic director of Back to Back Theatre.
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As theatre, it was certainly out there: a play performed in a public space as life
swirled around it, passers-by becoming unwitting extras, actors delivering their
lines via microphones and an audience on banks of tiered seats hearing the
dialogue and music through headphones.
With a sell-out season in the Flinders Street Station concourse, the show
became the hit of last year'
s Melbourne International Arts Festival. This month, it
comes to Circular Quay as part of the Sydney Festival.
The Geelong-based Back to Back Theatre, formed in 1987, has a full-time
ensemble of five actors with intellectual disabilities who devise and perform
works, including Pod, performed inside a giant inflatable bubble, and the critically
acclaimed Soft, about a couple who abort their child because it has Down
syndrome.
Small Metal Objects also touches on disability, exploring the way society values
people by their economic worth and rejects those perceived as less "productive" the disabled, the unemployed, those on the margins.
As the play begins, the audience can hear, but not see, friends Gary (Allan V.
Watt) and Steve (Simon Laherty) as they talk about their hopes and anxieties.
Then Gary takes a call from Alan (Jim Russell), a lawyer desperate to buy drugs
to liven up an awards night. It'
s never clear if Gary is a drug dealer but that'
s not
the point. When Alan enlists the help of his psychologist friend Carolyn
(Genevieve Morris), her escalating hysteria serves only to show how ugly these
"beautiful people" are.
The cast met recently in the company'
s Geelong HQ, reacquainting themselves
with a script they last performed in March. "What we'
ve focused on is rehearsing
it around the table as much as possible and trying to get the actors to connect in
this setting, so that when they'
re in that more chaotic environment, they can still
connect," Gladwin says.
"People approach the actors to ask them about a train or for directions to
somewhere. But that'
s part of the tension shared between the actors and
audience, where everyone knows there'
s this potential of that sort of thing
happening. It'
s a question of how they will react and maintain the truth of the
story."
One Melbourne show was interrupted by a train full of sloshed racegoers
returning from the Caulfield Cup. "There were 1000 drunk people in taffeta and
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dinner suits," he says, recalling how one of them mooned the audience. "It'
sa
real credit to the actors in terms of coping with this sort of stuff.
"Another day there was a guy in a wheelchair selling Chupa Chups who saw it as
a business opportunity, wheeling back and forth selling his wares. After a while
he just sat back and watched the show. He was such a strong presence, we had
him take part in the bow at the end."
Russell, from the television series Comedy Inc, has endured some sticky
moments. "I got recognised during a performance by a woman who bowled up
and said, '
You'
re on that show. It is you, isn'
t it? I'
m really funny - I could work on
your show.'I said, '
You'
re right, I am in that show but I'
m in a completely different
circumstance now.'"
Another day, he was handing over an envelope, supposedly full of money for the
drug deal, when he noticed police nearby. "My character is pretty nervous
anyway, since this isn'
t where he usually buys his coke. But the cops weren'
t to
know it was all part of the performance, so that was pretty interesting."
Gladwin says passers-by react differently when they realise they'
re not in on the
joke. "One night we had a woman with four poodles on a leash who stopped in
the middle of the frame and asked what was going on and everyone just laughed,
which she took quite well," he says. "But then you have a couple of young guys
come off the train who are a little bit tanked and they challenge the audience and
aggressively ask what they'
re looking at. Then you feel the audience shrink in
their seats. That power-shift is constantly fluctuating between the crowd and the
audience."
The format plays tricks with audiences'perceptions - are those maintenance men
part of the show? Or the man taking photos?
"In a way, the show takes place in an audience'
s head," Gladwin says. "When
Simon and Allan start, they'
re at the back of the space and obscured by people.
You hear someone on a mobile and see five people talking on mobiles and
you'
re not sure which one you'
re supposed to be watching."
Laherty has been acting for almost 20 years. "I love performing in front of a live
audience," he says. "People came up after the show in Melbourne and said they
really loved it." On the strength of that season he scored a role in the film Noise,
screening at next year'
s Sundance festival.
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Watt has previously shared the role of Gary with Sonia Teuben but will appear in
every Sydney show. His first foray onto the stage was as a 10-year-old. "It was at
the Geelong Spanish club and I played a Spanish boy. That'
s when I got the
taste," he says. "I don'
t mind all the applause and the standing ovations."
Gladwin says audiences often have a strong emotional reaction to the play.
"There'
s something about the experience of going to the theatre, where you feel
you are alone but together. It'
s like that fable about being together in our
aloneness."
Small Metal Objects is at Customs House Square from January 8-25.
Press Quotes
“Back to Back produces exemplary hybrid performance, placing the performer in
multimedia amalgams of physical, aural and virtual space with an architectural
sensibility, and bringing together a range of talents and intelligences that
challenge the able / disabled binary. Back to Back tackles dark subjects, blending
serious contemporary material about mind, body, morality and technology with a
droll sense of humour in works that are non-patronising, either for performers and
audiences, and sometimes downright lateral.”
Realtime Oct / Nov 2005
"Standing up to the avalanche of expectation our society places on youth, beauty
and intelligence, the company offers itself almost sacrificially to intense scrutiny.
Indeed, its body of work has always been and continues to be a kind of public
vivisection.”
The Age Oct 2005
“It'
s a confronting place to be, and once again it'
s the wonderful Back to Back
who are brave enough to take us there.”
The Program Oct 2005
“….an unforgettable theatrical experience."
The Age Oct 2005
“In an oddly low-key way it is highly exhilarating, as well as being fall-off-yourchair funny."
The Age Oct 2005
“We were clearly in the presence … of absurdist semioticians.”
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The Age May 2003
“… You would have to create a new category of theatre to position Back to
Back.”
Zurich newspaper quoted in The Age Sept 2003
“Udder genius”
Time Out May 2003
“… The stories are told with such sly, gentle humour, we can laugh even while
we acknowledge the ethical minefield they have knowingly entered.”
The Bulletin Nov 2002
“These talented performers have a devastating ability to illuminate complex
issues with their own form of lateral thinking.”
The Age Oct 2002
“A unique and remarkable group of performers and designers.”
The Age Oct 2002
“Geelong’s Back to Back has been freaking people out for 15 years. Its actors
disarm with humour and dazzle with a unique, cack-handed spin on the world.“
The Herald Sun Oct 2002
“There is something fantastically liberating and life affirming about the work of
Geelong based Back to Back Theatre.”
The Sunday Herald Sun 2000
“… Concentrated and inventive … theatre.”
The Sunday Age 2000
EXTRA MATERIAL
Frequently Asked Questions
WHY IS THE SHOW CALLED SMALL METAL OBJECTS?
SMALL METAL OBJECTS is a reference to coins / currency / money. The name
of the show came from a conversation with Back to Back’s ensemble and refers
to the main thematic concern of the show, which is the relationship between
economics and human value.
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WHAT PUBLIC SPACES HAS SMALL METAL OBJECTS BEEN PERFORMED
IN?
Small Metal Objects premiered on the concourse at Flinders St Station in
Melbourne as part of the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival. It has been
performed at Adelaide Railway Station (7th Australian Performing Arts Market
2006), and near Sydney’s Circular Quay (Sydney Festival 2007).
For the Mobile States tour, Small Metal Objects was performed at Perth’s Forrest
Place, Brisbane’s Queen St Mall, Melbourne’s Federation Square, Mildura’s
Centro Mildura, Bendigo’s the MarketPlace, and Salamanca Square in Hobart.
Small Metal Objects is suitable for public spaces with pedestrian traffic. Back to
Back is discussing a variety of venues with international presenters. The
Barbican will present Small Metal Objects at London’s Paddington station and a
season in a library in America is also in negotiation.
WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERFORMERS, AUDIENCE &
THE PUBLIC?
There are really two parts to the show: 1) the narrative that is played out; and 2)
the relationships between performers, audience and public. (This is hard to see
on the archival DVD and hard to explain to someone who hasn’t seen the show.)
The public relate to the show in different ways:
• Some people see the audience seated, with headphones, and presumably
wonder what is happening (for example, an experimental sound
installation or radio broadcast), but don’t stop to find out
• Some people are in a hurry and don’t notice the show (even if there are
160 people looking at them)
• Some people stop to look at the audience, then try to work out what they
are looking at and then keep going
• Some people stop to try to work out what the audience is looking at. Some
are successful and some are not
• Some people talk to the actors either because 1) they need information
(for example ‘Do you know where the toilets are?’), or 2) they have worked
out that the actor is part of the performance and they want to talk to them
about what is going on. The actors respond to this situation in character.
• Some people try to ‘be’ the performance: dance, talk, engage with the
audience in strange ways, or simply place themselves in the playing area,
signalling that they want to be watched by the audience
• Some ask the audience questions, try to sit down on the audience (who
knows why!) or sit in an empty seat (if there is one!)
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•
Some people photograph the audience (recently a passer-by stopped in
front of the audience while a friend took a photo of him “performing”.)
In their turn, the audience:
•
Sometimes respond to the public’s questions, encourages the public to
perform, tells the member of the public to stop performing, laugh at the
public (for example, if a member of the public inadvertently creates a
comic image)
These interactions are welcome and add to the performance. In our experience
we rarely need to intervene.
WHO WROTE SMALL METAL OBJECTS?
Back to Back is an ensemble company and all our work is group devised.
SMALL METAL OBJECTS was devised by Bruce Gladwin (Artistic Director),
Sonia Teuben and Simon Laherty (Ensemble Members) and three guest artists:
Genevieve Morris and Jim Russell (Performers) and Hugh Covill (Sound
Composer & Designer).
Bruce Gladwin: “We started off talking together about the relationship between
economics and human value. Economics is, we find, quite a difficult topic, so we
started talking about money, about what makes you a good person…”
The story emerged in large part from Sonia Teuben. She wanted to play a highly
successful person. To her, success is about friendships and relationships. (She
also wanted to play a man, which she thinks defines success in some ways.)
Much of the philosophy espoused by Gary, the character Sonia created, reflects
her ideas about what it means to be successful in the world, what is meaningful
in the world. Once the character of Gary had been formed, we started introducing
other characters that relate to him. The script developed from there.
The characters’ world is textured, in very human tones, by Sonia and Simon’s
perceptions of what defines success in contemporary society. As a dramatic
structure it was decided to present these characters enacting the simplest
financial transaction. Improvisations with Genevieve Morris and Jim Russell
created a successful lawyer (Alan) and psychologist (Carolyn) who attempt to
buy an unknown commodity from Gary and Steve in a public place. The story is
of a financial transaction gone wrong, a story of the every day, in real time,
intimate and public.
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A NOTE ON ECONOMICS
In SOFT, Back to Back’s 2002 production, a pregnant couple decide to terminate
their pregnancy when told the baby has Down Syndrome, motivated by the belief
their child would be perceived as a burden on society, rather than an asset.
SMALL METAL OBJECTS is a further investigation into the economic rationale
that underpins the social and ethical debates about pre-natal screening
technology.
In France in 2000 a group of economics students denounced contemporary
economic theory as "autistic" and “socially irresponsible”. A post-autistic
economics movement has developed in the UK led by 27 PHD students at
Cambridge, who have condemned the monopoly of a single approach in the
teaching of economics and its inability to address unemployment, inequality and
globalisation.
WEBSITE
http://www.backtobacktheatre.com/about.html
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