Mutation Theatre Presents
THESE ARE THE ISOLATE
Ed McCallister is a happily married man who is neither happy nor married. When overlooked for a promotion at work he returns home to find a woman, possibly his wife, setting up an elaborate suicide machine…all he wanted was someone to remember his birthday.
A collaboration between Mutation Theatre’s associate directors Katy Warner and Tim Wotherspoon, These are the isolate is an unsettling, darkly humorous and tragic tale of the destruction of isolation.
"FOUR AND A HALF STARS. How did a company as strong as Mutation Theatre escape my notice until now? These are the Isolate is a devastating two-hander. Loner Ed McCallister (Tim Wotherspoon) keeps up appearances at work, but the private cost is crushing. One day, the torment of depression- in the guise of a fantasy of happy marriage- lures him to the edge of an abyss. Katy Warner’s play is full of rapid-fire word games- a compelling construction of a fractured interior nourished by Beckett. Albee might be another spoke in its wheel. I kept imagining Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? where both Martha and the absent child are phantoms. Wotherspoon’s sublime histrionic talents bring precision and subtlety to the performance; every inflection is calculated into an unfillable matrix of unhinged comedy and pathos...this is astonishing theatre. It knows the song the sirens sang was a lullaby"- Cameron Woodhead (The Age)
"See this show and snap to it...It really is one helluva piece of work...what makes it worth seeing is the experience of discovering it for yourself. The writing is outstanding, with a kind of Schroedinger's Cat quality...unlike your standard narrative mystery which involves the withholding of vital facts, this one presents incommensurate realities simultaneously so the mind is forced to switch back and forth between possibilities that can't be reconciled. It's a bit like those pictures that are both a lamp and a pair of faces but the brain can't register both at once...it's a rare sight. Make this one a priority, folks"- John Bailey (A Capital Idea)
"These are the Isolate is alarmingly sophisticated...comically tragic...thrilling to experience...an inventive and engaging theatrical work that exposes the condition and anxieties of contemporary relationships...As Audrey admits herself, ‘I’ve run out of things to say’, and when you see this performance you’ll understand why"- Autumn Royal (Express Media/Buzzcuts)
"These Are the Isolate is the latest work from prolific new Melbourne company Mutation Theatre...It’s an interesting two hander on the theme of suicide...Wotherspoon turns in another captivating performance. He was great in Prelude to a Cottage and confirms his command of intimate spaces here. His is a fluent running style, but terrifyingly nimble, too, being able to turn his character on the smallest gestures"- Andrew Fuhrmann (Neandellus)
Performance Details
24th September- 9th October 2010
Tues-Sat 8.45pm, Sun 7.45pm
Fringe Hub- Upstairs at Errol's Cafe.
69 Errol St, North Melbourne (opposite Nth Melb Town Hall)
Adult- $18.00
Conc- $14.00
Tightarse Tues- $12.00
2 for 1 tickets on Friday 24th of September and Saturday 2nd of October.
Bookings: Festival Tix- 03 9660 9666
Online- http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/mutation-theatre-presents-these-are-the-isolate/
