This free street performance from Binge Culture Collective is the kind of theatre that really livens up a city.  Deep in the heart of the Lambton shopping quarter, where throngs of inner-city workers hit the streets for a bought lunch at Midland Park, the arresting sight of six or seven people seemingly frozen in a time-warp of ultra slow-motion causes a double take at the least, a disruption for most and a talking point for many. 

At the core of this work is a concept so simple that it really can’t fail: a slow lane for busy modern city folk; an invitation to willfully crawl to a snail’s pace for a tiny fraction of your day.  A cast of performers are walking the lane to show us how it’s done and there are one or two Binge reps in hi-vis vests there to encourage us to make use of the facility if we like. They inform us that it’s a trial for, potentially, a permanent slow lane to be installed. 

Interestingly (perhaps unsurprisingly) there are not many takers from the public.  I try my best to participate, but it is actually very difficult to sustain slow-motion movement (especially when you have a four-year old in tow).  I look around at the people watching the spectacle and think few will be brave enough to risk looking foolish with this many people around. It may be that director Fiona McNamara hoped for greater public participation – and I am sure there have been and will be some great moments – but I think the show works best at the immediate level, and I wonder how much potential there is for any deeper engagement.

I think the commentary underlying this concept will be clear to most observers: “How often do we really take the time to… etc etc etc.” Which is, you know, nice. But, as with meditation and exercise and those other virtuous practices, it’s only experience that counts.  It won’t benefit you to watch someone meditate and ponder how good it would be for you to have a calmer mind. So in this sense, the performers are the ones really getting a powerful experience here.

The performers are great – really slow.  From across the road they could be standing still.  It is a truly arresting visual, heightened by Debbie Fish’s design aesthetics.  All of the performers are dressed in whites and creams which makes them really ping out of the crowd.  While personally I found this look a bit too clean and pretentious, I can’t deny it heightens the experience, and makes the work feel more like an installation than a performance. 

It makes me think of a character in a Tom Robbins novel, called ‘Turnaround Norman’.  This fictional character was a street performer whose gig was that he would stand in one place and over a 12-hour period turn in a full circle on the spot.  It was so slow you couldn’t tell he was moving. Which obviously works well as an idea in a book but probably wouldn’t in reality.

Slow Lane however is something to be celebrated – a simple idea, well executed. A disruption of the ordinary, if only for a moment, that brings a spirit of curiosity and difference to the everyday person in the street.

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