DISTRACTION CAMP

Free Theatre Christchurch invites you to a House of Illusions. Inside, live music is performed by a twin pianist and cellist as actors tango together on a small dance floor, centre of the stage. Between dances and songs, the actors move to small dressing areas at the edge of the stage, and prepare for a series of performances, given for the audience and for each other. A bishop hears the confession of a young penitent, and gives penance. A judge hears the testimony of a thief, who is consequently punished severely by an ominous masked figure. A camp commandant trains his “horse” – a young woman who must be disciplined and properly put through her paces. A woman sings soulfully in remembrance of times past. The thief sings for the camp commandant, and in reward is given the head of her torturer in a box.

This is Distraction Camp, the major new work for 2009 from Christchurch’s award-winning Free Theatre. Distraction Camp takes further Free Theatre’s previous work in Faust Chroma, which revolved around the exploration of acting in theatre and everyday life. It also addresses the perverse fascination with Nazi symbolism in New Zealand that has been exposed in recent controversies.

Distraction Camp sits conceptually in relation (not quite opposition) to the “concentration camp,” drawing on a range of texts, films and images to explore a provocative premise:  whereas the experience of the concentration camp was one of scarcity and hunger, the current experience of late capitalism is one of obesity and obscenity, which ironically can be seen to lead to the same effect.  Induced constantly to consume entertainments that revolve endlessly around distractions and commodities, audiences have become like the Muselman – as the walking dead were known by fellow prisoners in the concentration camp – resigned to a way of living without meaning, obese yet starved of real nourishment.  

The unifying form for Distraction Camp is the tango. Tango (which began in Argentine brothels) with its intense expression of desire is a provocative and problematic basis for the exploration of the brutality inside our sentimentality. Out of the dance, with its oscillating relationships of power and submission, control and passion, emerge scenes; the actors reflect on what is going on inside and outside the theatre, addressing the audience, blurring the lines between actor, character and spectator. The dance floor is central, a crucifix as well as a crucible upon which the performers explore rituals of power before huge mirrors that – like the theatre – reflect back true and distorted images. Monitors show images from the city outside intercut with a live video feed from a roaming camera operator inside. This House of Illusion allows a potential for freedom from the outside world, but it is also constantly under surveillance.

Distraction Camp runs for a limited season. Don’t miss your chance to see this original and innovative work.