This production, like many from the rich imagination of director Peter Falkenberg, flies free of traditional theatre making and, like many of his most successful ventures, it is the result of collaboration with the University of Canterbury’s HIT Lab (Human Interface Technology Laboratory).

Such enterprise in the theatre is an exciting but risky business. Multiple possibilities still have to fuse into one event for one audience, which will make of the experience something else again … and come back for more. Puzzles are addictive and although the play has a clear, observable structure, it is its challenge to the senses which are memorable.  

There is no dialogue, only sound produced in the moment by voice and body, frequently interacting with an extraordinary set (Chris Reddington). The audience is seated within a square, itself defined by a double row of dangling lengths of electrical flex . Attached to some of these is an assortment of everyday domestic appliances and sockets, which will be used to reinforce the sense of an ‘electric jungle’.

Mostly we are in the dark, but flashes and projections as well as dramatic atmospheric light (Richard Till) will trace the dream journey of two yearning sailors around the four sides and their encounters with female images familiar to us from myth and fairy tale – the Siren from Homer, Lorelei, Rapunzel The Black Widow and Medusa. These potent fantasies are way up in the high airspace, so that the dreamers must climb and manoeuvre through the tangles of flex.

The programme notes explain well the importance and sophisticated technology of the arrangement, which interacts with the performers – “microphoned surfaces and costumes; live camera feeds and projections….two-way mirrors; lasers; movement sensors that transform the actor into an audio waveform generator; and colour detection whereby the position and movement within a video frame trigger and manipulate the playback of recorded sounds. The piece culminates in an immersive virtual reality environment that an actor can participate in through the use of tracking cameras.” Software for this extraordinary sequence is provided by Steven Lemon.

Of course we are not – and are not meant to be – aware of all the workings. The seeming magic of each seduction encounter is laden with sights and sounds at once intriguing and unsettling, as the laws of nature are left behind. Herein lies the puzzle and the delight.

There is a theme for those who dare unravel it, and it is an interesting one; namely that technology and women, at least as created by male fantasy, provide at once beauty and repetitive frustration, even danger. In the end desire is unattainable.

Intrepid performers tackle the human side of things. Stuart McKay and George Parker are the seekers. The temptresses, in costumes (Sylvia Houston) well tuned to the boldness of the venture, are played by Emma Johnston, Marian McCurdy, Greta Bond, Coralie Winn and Naomi Campion. All manage the challenges of set and action with seeming ease.

Christchurch is indeed fortunate that this group, recognised internationally for its innovative theatre-making, has survived the recent threat of closure to Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Canterbury. With its focus on experimental theatre, it provides a dimension rarely otherwise visited.  

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