Festivals carry with them the expectation of extremes. Amongst the boundary pushers on offer in Christchurch, and following its commission for the New Zealand International Festival in Wellington, 2006, this thoroughly crafted multi-media collage is right on track. Duncan Sarkies’ gentle and often ironic monologues are of a piece with Nic Mc Gowan’s Moog synthesiser, played out against a giant screen where cleverly edited images put the human elements of the show firmly in perspective. The performers move through the evening in a veritable forest of ‘gear.’

It is a very interesting combination, where the technology, in spite of its prominence, does not overwhelm the ideas being explored, but is a significant part of them. For the voices of the monologues come from little, lonely and isolated people, so myopic in their views as to be comfortably unaware of their position in contemporary urban and suburban life. The audience cannot afford to be smug for there is more than a little familiarity in the clichés and circumstances drifting past.

Happily, the range of lives visited brings both variety and a sense of escalation to a performance which could otherwise feel repetitive for the pieces are similar in tone and rhythm. Reflective, unhurried, dispassionate, the monologues bring us again and again ‘to the edge’ of realisation that modern life is a puny affair. From the ghost reluctant to call it a day, to the talk back radio host unable to raise a call and the lonely astronaut bored by the marvels of space, the subjects, images and sounds of the monologues create a landscape of resignation.

The best monologues are those with strongest irony in the telling. Invigorated in this way, the feckless gambler congratulating himself on his luck, the fast food boss insisting on happiness and the final ‘bed time story’ piece are especially potent.

It is, in sum, a clear-sighted, darkly humorous and technically  inventive performance piece, presented by  an accomplished pair. What is distinctive about their way of working is the sense that it is squarely of our age. The live human voice plays a small part in overall effects. Even then it comes through a sound system or can be recorded, manipulated and replayed. As a metaphor for alienation and some would say the tragedy of our times, the concept is effective.

On the other hand, what is inevitably lost is a sense of engagement and sharing with the audience. ‘Direct’ communication is most nearly achieved by giant images rather like the ones on the back of buses, inciting the audience to follow this or that piece of ‘advice’ from ‘Nic and Duncan’. They are smiling as they give it. 

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