Tango and The House of Illusions!
An S&M brothel, in a play which has been viewed as intelligently thought-provoking, self indulgent, or even self castigating, is the Free Theatre’s brave new venture with “Distraction Camp”.
A devised play, strongly influenced by Genet’s The Balcony, Distraction Camp is set in the House of Illusions. Here the resident Madame offers up scenarios so her customers can role-play their fantasies with her beautiful, Tango dancing, whores who she says are ‘working girls, not good or bad girls, but simply actors!’
Distraction Camp dares us to expose our deviant thoughts and fantasies while challenging why we judge behaviour as taboo, immoral and bad! Delve a little deeper though, and it plunges us into a miasma of questions that plague our contemporary world.
As soon as I entered, I was taken by the rich elaborate set. Walls swathed in deep red velvety curtains and large mirrors, where we can see ourselves from all sides, I became instantly aware of my surroundings. The stage is a beautiful wooden dance floor with two half-bird cages on either side, hung with paraphernalia and costumes, making me certain I am up for a lot of theatricality. The Cello is perfectly placed by the edge surrounded by pairs of beautiful shoes at each corner of the stage and complemented by a piano on the other side of the room. I also realize quickly that there are cameras operating here filming everybody, since our arrival at the theatre!
Enter the main players, the mirrors ensure nothing is hidden. They start down on their knees with mesmerizing, gentle swerves of polishing cloths moving crisscross around the stage! The movements become slightly rigorous as the music picks up, transforming a disciplined reverence to a subtle aggression that one must feel that they are no longer entirely free of a task! The obeisance to the stage done, the actors start to almost stalk each other in a melancholic, yet playful Tango. It becomes clear that this is a play about power and submission and the politics that go along with it.
As the play progressed, I picked up on many themes. At a superficial level the play is a sexually charged political play about our base desires! It challenges our judgements by using specific sexual behaviours to explore what we keep hidden from society. Ideas of domination and judgement are examined through twists and turns throughout the play. Each character appears to be in control, then submitting to another’s command until finally we understand that we are all simply victims of the Illusion of Power!
The next most obvious theme running throughout the play is that of Surveillance and Privacy. Am I always the same person when I am in my private space and when I think I am being watched? When do I feel entirely free? The idea, that not only are we constantly watched and watching others, but we are also constantly aware of reactions to our behaviour, is one that I personally find completely true yet very disconcerting.
In our world today paranoia engulfs every part of our life, from the physical social sphere to the ethernet to the mobile networks. Yet we believe our privacy is maintained! How do we miss the contradictions when we put ourselves on show on sites like Facebook and Twitter yet we grapple with Internet companies like Google and protest against bills like the Search and Surveillance Act.
When are we truly free if we are always on show? When are our words completely honest, our behaviours pure of self consciousness, and our body language without poseur? When are we really not managing other’s reactions to ourselves?
All through the play there is a challenge. Join the revolution or become the other! But what is the Revolution and who is the other? Freedom the play tells us but, what is freedom? Is it the revolution? Is it the counter-revolution (the other)? Is it our ability to make choices about life changing decisions? What we consume? How we perceive ourselves? How we present ourselves? What we choose to listen to? What we choose to see? Who we vote for? Freedom like choice is a subjective matter! It is a political point of view and completely dependent on our specific position in time and the geography of our life!
There are no answers to this challenge about freedom and revolution. Distraction Camp asks how the mass media, including the theatre, engages in and influences our ideas of freedom and revolution. As an audience do we act as spectators or participators? Self critically the actors ask if theatre itself is part of the status quo and has it become complacent by simply engaging in the act rather than actually challenging its being. Has theatre become mundane by allowing the pretense of revolution to occur on the inside, private space of the play, while permitting everyone concerned to return to their ordinary routine after a brief dabble in the exciting deviant, outside the acceptable set up of our society?
Throughout the play the actors dance the Tango. The Tango is perfect for all the themes in this piece. It exemplifies all the various power struggles we face, while exposing the aggression we feel yet constantly suppress in order to be accepted into society today! The almost predatory feel of this dance form, where one must overpower the partner into submission in order for the real grace of the dance to shine forth, is sensual and intoxicating.
At the end when we are invited to join the characters in the dance, it is easy to see that we were never on the outside! Once we entered the doors we were in the House of Illusions. It is simply up to us to be honest with ourselves and see our roles in this place and in our own lives or to continue on with the delusion that as an audience we are a separate reality to what we are watching with the ability to judge impartially and have a choice to walk away unaffected.
It is easy to say that I loved this play. I watched it with a strong visceral reaction! I was drawn to the insanely beautiful set, the melodic singing, the sultry sensual movements and the ideas and questions the brilliant actors of the Free Theatre (Christchurch) threw at me with every new character! I suspect not everyone will like this play but whether one likes it or not I think this play will definitely elicit a reaction! The House of Illusions demands we make the paradigm shift out of the mundane into the scary real world where the monsters are within each one of us!
Go Watch It!! But be warned, there is some nudity with irreverent references to Religion, Law and the Third Reich!
Book tickets: http://www.bats.co.nz/content/distraction-camp
(Source: freetheatre.org.nz)
