BIGTIMECLOCKS
BATS Theatre, The Random Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
16/11/2021 - 27/11/2021
Production Details
You have work to do but you are waiting for the right time to start. You wait for the alarm to go off, for the train to arrive, for the computer to power on, for the coffee to kick in. You have documents to print, telephone calls to field, colleagues to speak to and time waits for no one.
It’s a playground of administration. A race against the clock. A brand-new interactive, durational experience. BIGTIMECLOCKS, it’s about time.
BIGTIMECLOCKS is a 4hr event. You are free to come and go throughout the performance, the door to the theatre will be open at all times. Stay as long or as little as you like. On occasions when the space is full, there may be a wait time for you to enter or re-enter.
Sign up to be part of the experience online in the lead up to the live event. You’ll receive emails including the tip of the day, emails from your colleagues, and clues to unlock rewards and adventures.
Ticketing
Due to COVID-19 restrictions there are limited tickets available for sale online to each performance. There will be additional doorsales to purchase on the night of each performance, please go to the Box Office.
This show has a Pay What You Can pricing model. You decide which ticket price you want to pay from $5-$40. The ticket price you choose will not change your experience.
If you purchase a ‘Pay it Forward’ ticket on top of your own ticket(s), we will give away a ticket to someone who could not otherwise afford one.
We have an allocation of free tickets to give to people who want to come to the show but can’t afford it. If you would like a free ticket, no explanation is needed, go to this form to request one. If we have a ticket available for you, we will email you to confirm and all you need to do is show up on the night and give your name to the Box office.
BATS Theatre, The Random Stage
16 – 27 November 2021
from 6pm
Pay what you can $5 – $25
Pay it Forward $25
The Difference $40
BOOK TICKETS
Accessibility
The Random Stage is fully wheelchair accessible; please contact the BATS Box Office by 4.30pm on the show day if you have accessibility requirements so that the appropriate arrangements can be made. Read more about accessibility at BATS.
[Note: Wed 17 November cancelled.]
BIGTIMECLOCKS is supported by Akira Electrical Contracting, Coffee Supreme, Deluxe Cafe, Fix & Fogg and Good Fortune Coffee Co.
Directed by Olivia Mahood and Poppy Serano
Created by Olivia Mahood, Poppy Serano, Elekis Poblete Teirney, Ella Gilbert, Hakaia Daly and Samuel Austin
Performed by Ella Gilbert and Hakaia Daly
Lighting Design by Elekis Poblete Teirney
Audiovisual Design by Samuel Austin
Produced by Todd Waters
Production Management by Oliver Hawke, Pilot Productions
Production Assistance by Mia Bentley and Sophia Dry
O+P Works is a collaboration between Olivia Mahood and Poppy Serano. Olivia and Poppy met while studying at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and have been collaborating since 2015. Together they produce live performance and installation works with a focus on interaction, accessibility and public spaces.
Previous works include ‘Sense of a Stranger’ - The Performance Arcade (2018) and Expressions Gallery (2018), 'After Fruition' - The Performance Arcade (2019), ‘Boss of an Office’ - Auckland Fringe Festival (2019), 'Cleaning the Room' - Auckland Fringe Festival (2020), ‘Boss of an Office: WFH’ - Satellites (2020), ‘Boss of an Office: Overtime’ - Little Andromeda (2020), ‘Empty Red Room’ - What if the City was a Theatre (2021) and ‘Re-flects’ - Auckland Arts Festival (2021).
They received the Spirit of the Fringe Award 2020 for Cleaning the Room, and Best Contemporary Performance & Live Art and Best Production Design 2019 for Boss of an Office.
Theatre ,
4 hrs – come and go as you like
A liminal space, bordering on satirical at points and downright arcane at others
Review by Emma Maguire 19th Nov 2021
It is 9.15am and you are in the office. Are you the HR manager? Are you a performer or a viewer? What time is it, really?
BIGTIMECLOCKS is an office simulation, but it’s more than that. It’s a love letter to tiny little weird bits of personality, whether it’s keeping around a broken Gameboy Colour, or doodling in the office notebooks that no-one else really touches.
It is also immersive theatre at its absolute best.
2021’s STAB commission, this show pulls out all the stops to create an accurate office experience for those of us who perhaps haven’t quite had that life. With broken shredders, surprise office gossip, and an everlasting email thread about where the office Christmas party should be (I personally voted for laser tag), the show is a hyperreality of corporate life, placing you on stage as the employees.
The Random Stage at BATS Theatre has been transformed into an open plan office, and we are all the office workers. The first thing my theatre-going companion notices when we enter the room is how well fitted the carpet is to the room, and that’s just the beginning. Old-school fluorescents hang from the ceiling. There’s a printer, a shredder, and several desks. “We’re hot desking today,” Nicky (Ella Gilbert) calls, as our office middle manager. “Just pick a desk.”
It takes a few moments to pick up the vibe and slip into the world. I know I spend at least fifteen minutes just wandering the room, doodling on the office whiteboard or reading countless emails threads from people I don’t know but who hold the titles of Human Resources, Process Systems, Tech Support, Communications Systems – I know some of them at least are people I’m sharing the space with, but others are elsewhere, faceless and nameless barring their job titles.
New guy Gary (Hakaia Daly) calls the ancient Acatel on the desk I am sitting at, saying he’s running late and he’ll bring in coffee as an apology. The person I’m with orders an Americano, and to our surprise, Gary shows up a couple of minutes later, Americano in hand.
Part exedwhibition, part theatre piece, running from 6-10 each night. You can come and go when you want, provided you clock in and out with the BATS box office. My companion and I leave after a bit, promising we’ll be back in a couple of hours, excited to see how things have changed when we return.
It’s while we’re on the street waiting for our bus that he says to me, “I’m looking at people out here and it’s like I don’t know if they’re real or not,” which is a true testament as to the lengths this show goes to intertwine itself with the real(ish) world when you’re a part of it.
BIGTIMECLOCKS is an immensely clever piece of theatre, with a massive in-depth fully-realised wider world around it. The level of lore and detail placed into such a small theatre space is incredible, and I dread to think about how complicated the technical aspects of this piece are. Controlling several cameras, a Zoom session, lighting, sound and monitoring the behaviour of several strangers using computers in the space has got to be a bit of a mission, and I applaud the team working behind the scenes to make this show happen.
When me and my theatre-going companion return at about 9.15pm, the office has descended a little closer to anarchy. There are other artists we know in the office now, and the formerly clean boardroom desk is now littered with rubber bands and post-it notes. Everyone’s also drinking wine which breaks – but also doesn’t seem to break – the meta world that we’re now living in. I scrawl my congratulations on a card that someone has made out of printer paper. Nicky and Gary return, and time has clearly passed for them in an esoteric, bizarre way that doesn’t quite line up with the time that has passed in the real world.
This office is a liminal space, bordering on satirical at points and downright arcane at others. Bring your friends, bring your co-workers, join in with the office or sit on the sidelines – just come along with someone you like when you do.
It is 9.15am and time is ticking. Better clock in.
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