Type: Fringe Theatre, Spoken Word Poetry, Queer Theatre, Interactive theatre
If You Liked: Wright and Grainger’s Selene or Helios, Patch Theatre, Game shows
The sense of play and wonderment is something that most adults forget as the requirement to be a ‘grown-up’, weighed down by the eternal slog of stability and comfort. Play, the joyful offering from a duo of Western Australian theatre makers, perhaps theatre, is a healthy and enriching invitation to reconnect with your inner child. Presented as an introspective piece from writer and performer Robbie Fieldwick (and collaborator Emmett Aster), it weaves through Fieldwick’s life and the active choices they’ve made to ensure play and whimsy are a part of their adult life.
With so many theatrical devices and interactive moments, it’s almost as if the internet sensation Game Changer has dreamt up an after-hours lo-fi option and unleashed it on fringe theatre in Australia. Throughout the piece you can’t help but feel that tingling sense of elation you get when you’ve achieved something as a child.
Now, I believe ‘audience participation’ is one of the most terrifying phrases known to humankind, whether it’s because of a fear of looking silly or feeling unprepared for a task performed in public. Wherever possible, I avoid any show that includes those words. However, so passionate about accessibility, perhaps theatre has found a way to make even the most timid among us in the audience feel safe, included, and that they have agency in the space. I eagerly engaged in the piece, as there are few things I like more than seeing fringe theatre. One of them is playing with LEGO, another is winning trivial competitions, and the fact this show gave me 10 minutes to build LEGO as part of a competition against other audience members is how this show gets the final few notches it needs to be a five-star show.
Play takes a dozen or so theatrical styles, rolls them up, covers them in game board pieces, and invites us all to be young again for an hour, and for that I’m deeply grateful.
Play and companion piece the worst of us have wrapped their short season at Pride Fest but are already slated to return to the Sydney Fringe Festival in September, among other festivals over the next twelve months, and as they do, word of mouth will quickly take the pieces from hidden gems to must-sees, so be sure to check them out wherever they next pop up.
