It's been so long since I've actually gone and seen a play that I actually had to create a special category for it just now. And I'm living in what must be the most heavily play-saturated city in the world. I really must do better.
Anyway, last night I went and saw my friend Helena performing in Poet #7, a very odd and interesting play by Australian author Ben Ellis (who I met afterwards and was extremely shy and self-effacing, he said he was terrified throughout the entire performance, which I thought was very cute). It's also set in Australia, although it takes place across four different time zones- two pre-apocalyptic (the present day), two post-apocalyptic. In fact it's more like four different poems or stories being read from the perspective of each character (a librarian, a businessman, an odd kind of mortician, and a lab rat). At first each of the stories seem wildly disparate, but by the end of the play each story has dovetailed neatly into the next, sometimes humorously, sometimes tragically.
I'm not sure how much I can say about the individual stories without spoiling it for you. It is initially confusing and it takes a while (as is the case in a lot of drama) to get into the rythym of the piece, understanding its special language that it's trying to communicate in. This takes about ten minutes and once you're in the right mode it becomes a lot easier to understand and a lot more enjoyable. It's certainly not your typical, easily digested play in which characters interact with each other- even on those rare occasions where one character converses with another, they do so by quoting the other character (even though they're standing right there! Geddit?)
The design is excellent, the entire auditorium feels like bunker with 'Missing' posters taped to the walls foreshadowing the cataclysm at the centre of the play before you even read the first line. Also, if you listen carefully to the music they play in the background as you're all getting seated before the play begins, it's actually a radio show which also provides hints and clues about the events to come. It's also a pretty cool theatre overall- very small, but built over a pub so it has quite a cosy, relaxed feel to the proceedings.
The acting is top notch- one of the hardest things for any actor to do is simply repose on stage, do nothing at all, and still not break character. Each of the actors spends most of of the performance not reacting to the other actors, or even observing them, as they might have the opportunity to do in a more conventional play. This is not the case here, so it's quite impressive that, even when the characters are doing nothing, the actors still manage to remain convincing- it's quite a trick.
Yeah, so, it runs until the 18th of March, it's in Battersea, it is worth checking out.
This is a 
A theatre review! About time too, as you say, living in a city with approximately a billion theatres. Anyhoo, you say it's set in Australia across four different time zones, but this shows different time zones in Australia, so I think you actually meant four different time periods, which makes more sense.
Anyhoo, sounds like a fab production, I love that kind of thing in plays where they play something subliminal before the show. I remember a production of MacBeth where they played a kind of wind/white noise effect for half an hour before the show, really quietly, so by the time the play started the audience were practically shitting themselves. I've sent my Director the link to the show, so hopefully it'll make it's way to Ireland at some stage.
Matt,
they ARE playing in Dublin next week- you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?
Unless whatever I comment on a blog actually comes true, no!
Conveniently, I know the director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, so freebies are a definite possibility.
Cheers for the heads-up mon frére.