No doubt, live theatre offers the audience a taste of reality, an experience so unique it will never transpire exactly the same way twice.
Michelle St Anne takes that notion to another level. As an actor and playwright, and the founder and artistic director of The Living Room Theatre, she thrives on immersive, intimate performances that draw the audience in deep.
Her work, the foul in the air, will be performed at The Lock-Up creative space for two shows only. The 70-minute play features two performers (St Anne is one of them) and four double bass players, who play integral roles as well.
Inspired by Charlotte Wood's book The Natural Way of Things, St Anne's original production the foul of the air is an exploration of how easily society can become immune to the mistreatment of others, especially women.
"This work deals with the complicity of violence, so it's not so much violence itself, but how much we are willing to overlook what happens in our everyday life," she says.
The play was developed as part of the Sites of Violence research project conducted at the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney. The project explores how scholars across disciplines can work with performance artists to powerfully transmit the realities of violence, to build capacity to stand in the face of the truth of violence and move away from strategies of avoidance and denial.
"I have very little language in my work," St Anne says. "My work reflects the home I was brought up in, a very violent household, a very quiet household. You did not want to wake the bear. And so my work is very much about that deadly silence that happens in spaces where every movement counts, every gesture matters, and so therefore, to some, my work would feel very claustrophobic.
"And I hope somehow to find a rapport in people so they can bring themselves to the work. The less language, the more visceral, means I can speak more broadly to a wider range of experiences."
St Anne had a residency at The Lock-Up a year ago, and during that time reimagined how she could present the foul in the air in this space, which served as Newcastle's police station and lock-up for more than 100 years.
Pictured: A scene from the foul in the air. Picture by Christopher Wright
