Presented by: Wickedly Good Productions
Reviewed: 5 October 2022
‘Is there a God?’ ‘What happens after we die?’. The Numinous is briskly addressed in an hour and ten minutes, over three locations, in After All This.
Given the advance marketing, you could be forgiven for expecting this show to be a cross between a Landmark Forum weekend and a Hillsong service. Coy pre-publicity, tricked out in the language of pseudo-spiritual cults, addresses ‘HUMANS (or beings contained in human life-form vessels)’, asking a series of pop-psychology questions. No playwright is named. Neither are any cast members. It simply doesn’t look like a play. The closest we get to any sense of theatre is: ‘Originally devised and performed by Elbow Room in 2012, powerhouse duo Caitlin Ellen Moore and Nate Troisi are re-imagining this award-winning Australian theatre cult classic for its South Australian premiere.’ The original production by Elbow Room (a Melbourne socio-political theatre company) listed Marcel Dorney, co-artistic Director of Elbow Room, as the playwright. I couldn’t see him listed anywhere on the programme.
The performance starts with two fine young actors, Zola Allen and Arran Beattie, performing a charming scene between an 8-year-old Angus and 11-year-old Emily. The children’s doubts, questions and genuine confusion set the foundation for the rest of the show, lighting the fuse for an exploration of God (or god, if you prefer) and the Hereafter.
The audience then processes to another place, where we stand while American mathematician and evolutionary geneticist George R. Price (Nate Troisi) and British evolutionary biologist William Donald Hamilton (no photos or character names in the cast list, so I’m not sure who she was, but she did a great job) duke it out intellectually. It’s evolutionary biology versus human morality. ‘Can there be such a thing as a good deed without the promise of reward?’ The philosophic conclusion is that morality is a sociological artefact. There is a group of people singing with a guitar. Somewhere. We can’t see them.
Off to another space. Eight cast members enter; each one picks up a tracksuit top from the stage. This nicely diverse bunch (older, younger, bigger, smaller, darker, paler), put on identical tracksuit jackets. Dialogue is rapidly swapped from one to the other, with an acceleration of energy and intensity in the text. In this segment, some actors show excellent craft skills, ensuring that every word, no matter how casually and colloquially delivered, is heard. Some aren’t quite as skilled yet. Phenobarbital-and-apple juice references Heaven’s Gate, San Diego and 1997. The eight characters all long for the Ineffable, the Numinous. Whatever we long for when words don’t quite cut it. The net effect of the show is provocative… It provokes thought, reflection and questions.
Caitlin Ellen Moore, freelance creative producer and Head Storyteller of Wickedly Good Productions, is listed as ‘Creative Producer + Designer’. Nate Troisi not only plays Price the mathematician (see above) with great élan; he directs the piece. His directorial vision, allied with Jacinta Way’s design work, has produced an unashamedly quirky, memorable production designed to resonate, incite questions and ignite argument. Hooray for theatre that does this!
Reviewed by: Pat H. Wilson
Venue: Rumpus Theatre, Bowden
Season: 5 September – 16 October, 2022
Duration: 1hour 10 minutes
Tickets: $28:00 (conc. $24:00)
Bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/after-all-this-tickets-392200330747
