POV

★★★★ “Featuring 36 unrehearsed actors, the latest mash-up of theatre and film from re:group performance collective is a hilarious and profound family portrait.”

ABOUT THE SHOW

A kid with a camera. Two adults. No rehearsal.

Each night of the latest docudrama experiment from re:group performance collective, two new unrehearsed adult actors join a young performer onstage. Through her direction, they are led through reenacted scenes, negotiating difficult questions about family, agency, mental health and how we speak to children.

Bub is 11-years old and obsessed with documentary filmmaking. In the aftermath of her family breakdown, Bub turns to dramatised reenactments to get to the truth. 

POV is a new theatre work that builds on re:group’s interest in the intersections of cinema and theatre, this time turning their attention to documentary filmmaking. For the first time, re:group are collaborating with young performers to create the show. Two child actors, Edith Whitehead and Mabelle Rose, alternate the role of Bub in the work, the central figure and director of the ‘documentary’. The unique aspect of the show is that Bub has different co-stars for parents every night.

POV begins long before the audience arrives on the night of performance. In advance of the season, the most exciting actors the host location has to offer are contacted and cast. They know almost nothing of what the show will be. Only that they must have a Working With Children’s Check and arrive at the theatre an hour beforehand. 48 hours before their slot, they receive an email asking them to do some simple preparation, ACTOR 1 must prepare a Werner Herzog impersonation, while ACTOR 2 must do general research into Bipolar Affective Disorder. On the night, they are met in the foyer by the chaperone and their experience begins.

The audience enters the space to see these two unprepared actors. The child performer - Bub - enters and gets the actors ‘into character’ as Bub’s parents. Bub explains she is making a documentary. She leads the actors in repeating key phrases and details in order to reenact scenes from her family life. The narrative is initially playful, making great use of the audience’s awareness that these two adult actors are unrehearsed. The actors are directed to read from printed scripts, and screens around the space, as Bub films them with her camera to create the reenactments she needs for her documentary.

Halfway through the show, when one of the actors must rush through a relentless chunk of text with no punctuation marks, it is revealed that Bub’s mother is in the midst of a Bipolar episode. At this point, the show has a ‘break’ where Bub (and the audience) are given biscuits and fruit boxes. This serves to reset the energy for the second half of the show, much of which is played out with the performers on headphones, receiving instructions that the audience doesn’t hear. The second half is more lyrical, as Bub repeats one scene centred around a blow up mattress 5 times, swapping which actor plays which role in order to understand what is happening to her family.

Finally, Bub stops the repeats and the performers are each given a final piece of text to perform. Depending on the actor and the particular mood of the show, these moments can be funny, surprising or deeply moving - often all three at once. Audiences leave the show wrung out emotionally, but ultimately fortified and buoyed by the strength and honesty of children.

REVIEWS

“POV is an extraordinarily inventive piece, one sure to send audiences out into the night with minds burning with questions about the theatrical form, and with hearts relit with compassion for those who suffer.”
- Theatre Red

“The irreplaceability of the show is perhaps its most remarkable aspect. The intimate audience is witness to an ephemeral display of emotion, invention and dialogue.” 
- Honi Soit

★★★★ “Every little thing about POV feels fresh. From the topic it’s tackling, the way it chooses to handle it and the unrehearsed nature of two thirds of the performances. There is the thrill of the unexpected at every turn.”
- Cultural Binge

Participant / Audience Feedback

“LOVED that show last night. How beautiful. Crazy to be IN a show and also be an audience member at the same time. I was really moved by it and found it very profound”
- Ewen Leslie

“Beautifully constructed work…My wife and daughters came along, and they loved it. Moved and engaged in equal measure. I think it’s a great example of theatre as ultimately an act of empathy…brilliant being involved. It should get another season at a festival, I reckon”
- Steve Rogers

“A lovely coalescence of good writing, tech savvy and dramaturgical precision…we left, buoyed by the creativity but gloomy about the ending, which, in the end, I think one should be”
- Keith Gallasch

ABOUT THE COMPANY

re:group performance collective is an independent theatre company comprised of dear friends who work together to make “live cinema” and contemporary performance. They are Mark Rogers, Solomon Thomas, Malcolm Whittaker, Steve Wilson-Alexander and Carly Young. They are based between Sydney and Wollongong and take inspiration from the highs and lows of pop culture to make their theatre projects.