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small metal objects Back to Back Theatre
presented by Mobile States: Touring Contemporary Performance, Australia
Photo: Jeff Busby  
 
Director / Devisor
Bruce Gladwin
Devisors
Simon Laherty, Sonia Teuben, Genevieve Morris, Jim Russell
Sound Composer & Designer / Devisor
Hugh Covill
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Internationally acclaimed Back to Back Theatre presents small metal objects – the sell-out smash hit of the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival – in a national Mobile States tour.
 
small metal objects is a subtly comic fable of two ‘invisible’ men and their accidental role in the downfall of a business awards night. Staged in a public place with passers-by as unwitting extras, small metal objects is a spectacle of the ordinary. Among the unsuspecting pedestrians are Steve and Gary, a quiet, lonely pair on the fringe of society.

The seated audience listens via headphones to the characters’ intimate conversation and composed score set against the constantly moving pedestrian landscape. Gradually the audience identify the performers to whose conversation they have exclusive access.

small metal objects examines respect, identity and invisibility, in an age when our value is calculated by our productivity. Part voyeuristic meditation, part urban thriller, the effect for the audience is an unforgettable cross between documentary film and theatre. Back to Back Theatre creates highly idiosyncratic work driven by an ensemble of actors perceived to have intellectual disabilities. Their view of the world is unconstrained by ‘convention’ or the imperative to be ‘normal’.

  www.backtobacktheatre.com 
  Premiered Melbourne Festival 2005. Sydney Festival 2007. Toured for Mobile States to Perth (Perth Festival/PICA), Melbourne (Arts House/Federation Square), Brisbane (Powerhouse/Queen St Mall), Hobart (Salamanca/Ten Days on the Island), Mildura Wentworth 
        
  
  Toured by Performing Lines for Mobile States: Touring Contemporary Performance Australia. Mobile States is a national touring initiative of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council. It has received support from the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through the national performing arts touring program, Playing Australia. 
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"Master provocateurs, Back to Back does a rigorously mighty job on nudging and subverting “straight” audiences into seeing beauty where it is hidden."

The Age, 2005

"Small Metal Objects is one of the most startling and seductive shows of the year."

Beat/Arts, 2005

"It is a pure, open-hearted, complex and breathtaking production and a unique meditation on human worth… Under the deft direction of Bruce Gladwin, Small Metal Objects is a startling and heart-swelling blend of the micro and the momentous in our world."

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007

   
 

 

   
 
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