Brienna Macnish creates a highly unique theatre experience in the home of a Kensington retiree.
As part of the Next Wave Festival, Brienna Macnish has created an intimate and unusual work of theatre. Arriving at the front door of a residence in Kensington, audiences will be shown where the spare key to the house is kept. They will then let themselves in and be given MP3 devises, allowing them to explore the rooms of the house while being guided by the voice of the house’s owner: a grandmother named Marianne. “They are able to explore her life through her stories and also through this space,” Macnish tells me. “I think that houses are really potent spaces. They are our most personal and most private spaces that we are able to shape to match ourselves. That space will also be able to tell stories about the life that this woman has led and the life that she is now leading.
“The project is a site specific audio theatre piece,” Macnish explains. “This means that instead of being a play that you would watch in a theatre, it’s actually something that you listen to. This particular work is designed to be listened to in the home of an older person.”
Running until Sunday, May 11, HOME was funded by Next Wave’s kickstart program, giving Macnish the financial support and mentoring she needed to complete the work over the last 12 months. Inspired by her own grandparents’ decision to move into a high care nursing home, Macnish recognised the importance of discussing ideas around Australia’s ageing population and the way they are treated within the community.
The work stands in good company in the Next Wave program, which is full of artists that are bending rules of genre and convention in their work. “Audio theatre is part of a wider move of theatre in non-traditional spaces,” she tells me. “It is just one voice in your ear. You can hear someone lick their lips in the recording, or breathing, or hear someone whispering to you. It’s incredibly personal and incredibly intimate.”
HOME
Continues until May 11
10am to 10pm daily
Tickets $15- $20
