Review: Welcome to Nowhere
A Liminal Moment and the Future Begins Again
For the student cast of Welcome to Nowhere, the play signals the beginning of a new chapter.
By Nicholas Li
★★★★
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It is the first of unseasonably warm spring nights when last drinks are called to beckon the crowd of 20-somethings away from the Malthouse and on into the night. Hugs are exchanged with the cast, the sound of goodbyes making way for the clang of beer bottles as staff prepare for the final day of Welcome to Nowhere.
It requires a certain breed to pursue a career in the arts, always has. Indulge me and return to the moment you last heard the school bell chime through the court yard, a sound that embodied the liminal moment beckoning you towards adulthood. Year 12 exams are over. November warmth heralds the beginning of summer and of (relative) liberty. For you, there is little interest in accounting, in science, or law. The passion is theatre. You are not ignorant to a lack of opportunities; your parents have always been more than happy to remind you that what you do is a “hobby, not a job.”
So you overcome their trepidations – and finally your own – and decide “to hell with society’s expectations, I’m gonna do this!”
…Unfortunately Australia does not make it easy. To study the arts comes with an $18,000 debt. And of course there is no guarantee of work even with your degree. Nevertheless you either have the self-confidence or blissful ignorance to take up tertiary education in the arts. It is the logical next step. In a few years you find yourself in a familiar predicament; is this a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same?
Welcome to Nowhere is a Melbourne Fringe Festival theatre production running from the 24th of September to the 3rd of October at the Malthouse Theatre.
5 Australian playwrights were each tasked by director Emma Valente with creating a performance based on the prompt ‘Welcome to Nowhere,’ a theme based on the idea of liminality.
5 mini plays of no specific relation other than the prompt were produced.
Performed by a cohort of final year Bachelor of Performing Arts students from Monash University, the result is an emotionally and thematically diverse experience; you would be hard pressed to find something that covers as much territory at the rest of the Fringe.
The first play, Fleur Kilpatrick’s Inertia, centres on the fiery interactions between an aspiring mars astronaut (Emily O'Connor) and a boyish young man she appreciates only in his capacity to fulfil her sexual needs (Jordan Broadway). It sets off the play in the most ideal way. Comical yet serious enough to engage, it also features a sex scene that is part dance, part physical sequence, so simultaneously alien and sensual that it would enthral even the most experienced lover.
Broadway’s character seems mismatched for O’Connor’s, his awfully drab clothing and awkward demeanour would inspire minimal interest in a potential sexual partner. Beth Auhl is the costume designer for Welcome, and is also in her final year of Performing Arts. She explains how the costume is aimed to draw the audience into seeing through the eyes of the aspiring astronaut.
“We wanted him to look very bland because we’re seeing it through the girl’s perspective, where she’s not really interested in anything about him. It’s not his personality that she’s interested in. He’s bland. There’s nothing. There’s nothing to comment about him. All the way down to his socks.”
Across the 5 plays, Ms Auhl increased the amount of colour in slow increments to correlate with the relationship she saw between the performances.
“I imagined a slider board of colour from 0-100, and to slowly the increase the amount of colour along the play. As we went along each piece got some more patterns, textures and colours, until the final piece, which was very bold and very experimental.”
Zoey Dawson’s Started From The Bottom follows and features Eliza Quinn as a glammed up young woman receiving an unspecified award. She lives in a world of self-doubt, vocalised in the form of a pestering parrot (Claire Macalister). An obscure affair, Quinn’s borderline deranged character is a convincing and multidimensional effort.
The closest the production comes to realism is its third play, Daniel Keene’s Ash, a somewhat touching exploration of sibling connection in the face of a parent’s death. Its value is detracted by having the misfortune of being sandwiched between two plays whose frenetic energy makes it seem meagre in comparison.
Indeed the last two performances evoke feelings at opposite ends of emotional spectrum. Morgan Rose’s New Bright Future explores a group of young adults discussing the disappearance of their home town. The closer, Angus Cerini’s The Curling Ribbon, is loosely inspired by the Sydney Siege and is a brutal portrayal of love in the face of a homicidal maniac.
Jordan Broadway looked for inspiration in unusual places for the role of the gun man.
“I watched a lot of videos of animals attacking their prey, to get out of my own way of moving. Early in the process I felt like I was some sort of woodland elf floating around the stage; it wasn’t scary. I’m obviously not a huge guy, so I looked at cheetahs and wolves to see how something not physically huge could have a big presence.”
The students are a dying breed. They are the last of their crop. Monash cut the Bachelor of Performing Arts from its curriculum in 2013, with the course merging into the Bachelor of Arts degree. It thus seems fitting that the Fringe Festival, now in its 33rd year of promoting grass roots talent, is putting its weight behind the performance.
For the members of Welcome, the play is the final assessment before the students revisit that familiar liminal moment of not so many years ago.
The feelings of insecurity that come from pursuing the dream may remain, but Jordan Broadway notes in gentle self-assuredness that the experience has brought great value to their prospects.
“It’s a really great thing to say - while I’m still at university - that I’ve had a show at the Malthouse. I can name drop the writer and the directors that were involved in the project. A bunch of industry people have come to see the show and it’s nice to have my face and name in the back of their head. It won’t be like, “oh I saw you in this show, come be in our headline MTC show next year.” I’ll keep doing my independent stuff with the students that I’ve met, but it’s a good thing to have on my resume.”
Similarly, Beth Auhl agrees that working at the Malthouse has been a significant stepping stone. With a touch of humour, she speaks with an acute awareness of her position.
“It was amazing working at the Malthouse, I’ve already worked here once before and hopefully many more to come because this is what I want to do!”
Welcome is a challenging experience for those not familiar with modern theatre. There are moments, such as in The Curling Ribbon, that the frenzied pace of the action and demands of the script could derail the scene; performed well, it is a sign of maturity on behalf of the cast. Sound is used to unsettle the audience, notably in the periodical introduction of high pitched ringing during tense scenes. Intrusive sounds are also generated by the cast; piercing cries and screams will leave you very, very tense.
By the climax of the play I could take no more aural assault. Whilst this may suggest a poor play, it was not the case. Rather, it was reflective of the objective to un-nerve being successfully achieved. Anxiety was just one amongst a plethora of emotions. A sign of a diverse and complete theatre experience, and of a liminal moment for the cast.
“The moment is charged with potential; anything could occur.”