After their recent triumphs on the international stage – winning the 2022 Ibsen prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in theatre, and the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in theater at this year’s Venice Biennale – Geelong’s Back to Back could be forgiven for having a distinctive aura. Congratulations. You can expect something celebratory from them. Instead, they serve up Multiple Bad Things, a morbid work that is very complex and unstable, even whirling.
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Of course, anyone familiar with this company’s history knows that they do not resort to simple assurance; they were never smooth or superficial. They also never shied away from provocation, exploring topics where other companies would go a mile too far. As an ensemble of performers who self-identify as mentally disabled or neurodivergent, Back to Back continues to provoke and confront audience expectations and prejudices. Multiple Bad Things wades into dangerous waters with exciting consequences.
In some ways, this new study can be seen as a summary of the company’s concerns; There are echoes of past productions and major themes return. We discuss work and physical ability, gender and sexuality, oppression and control. As always in Back to Back, issues of power and agency come into play. But there is also a renewed artistic vigor, a conscious engagement with new perspectives. It’s a show that looks back while moving forward.
Three warehouse workers, two women and one man, navigate differing opinions and attitudes as they try to erect an oddly bent scaffolding. Initially, the man (Scott Price) seems content to ride an inflatable flamingo and let the women do the work. One of them (Sarah Mainwaring) is less outspoken than the other (Bron Batten), more prone to placating and excusing. He begs for physical help but is blithely ignored.
Batten’s character briefly bonds with Mainwaring’s, but takes on more sinister undertones as the play progresses. Dressed in pink (a reference to Arthur Boyd’s painting The Australian Scapegoat, according to the program) and wrapped suggestively around the metallic set, she becomes a figure of chaos and cruelty. He suddenly adopts the language of victimization to create better victimization. He uses the concept of diversity to justify superiority and tyranny. It’s a chilling reminder of how power disguises itself for its own purposes, and a cryptic swipe at the disingenuous language of participation that ironically marginalizes the most vulnerable.
Surrealism and symbolism play a larger role in Multiple Bad Things than in some of the company’s previous productions. A fourth figure (Simon Laherty), sitting on the sidelines watching a computer monitor and playing solitaire, seems both aloof and eye-opening: an apathetic machine god who also affects the lives of warehouse workers in strange ways. This plastic flamingo was at one point deflated and worn like an animal skin, recalling the company’s earlier masterpiece Ganesh, the Hindu god against the Third Reich. Death is calling.
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While all this makes the piece seem clumsy and over-the-top, it is often funny and playful. In one brilliant scene, Mainwaring calls a helpline and finds himself enduring a ridiculous recorded message that veers from bureaucratic inanity to riotous swearing and passive aggression. Laherty occasionally asks permission to buy a bottle of Coke or a box of Cheezels. Even the trigger warning at the beginning feels slyly disrespectful. This tonal instability and balance of modes, brash and deadly serious, indicate the confidence and complexity of the production.
It is technically perfect. Anna Cordingley’s set and costume design is clever and thoughtful, surprising and mechanical in some ways, but also capable of creating wonder and transformation. This scaffolding seems deliberately cruel and humiliating, but it keeps its secrets and ultimately delivers a powerful theatrical coup. Richard Vabre’s lighting design is assured and sensitive, while Zoë Barry’s score is darkly evocative.
The performances are rich and impressive. Mainwaring, as always, is extremely compassionate and sensitive, seemingly capable of carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Price is abrupt and angry, while Laherty is funny and very funny. Batten makes a strong impact as the provocateur, sassy and disturbing.
Multiple Bad Things sees Back to Back at the peak of his skills, simultaneously expansive and sharp. The spectacle itself becomes a disturbing, often ominous abstraction and threat. The usual refuges of community and friendship seem hollowed out, and the nameless figures on stage feel somewhat adrift, floating directionless in a sea of doubt and confusion. Far from being a victory lap, this new production is frustrating and challenging, more like a cry of despair. It’s like they’re saying, step into our shoes and see the world as it really is.
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Back to Back’s Multiple Bad Things is at the Geelong Arts Center until 13 April, then at the Belgian Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles from 10 to 12 May and at the Melbourne Malthouse from 29 May to 9 June It will be shown in the theatre.