THE TENT [Review]
THE TENT - FLING Physical Theatre - May 5, 2024
Reviewed by Kate Liston-Mills
The learnings that will ripple out from this work cannot be underrated — ‘The Tent’ was magnificent. It was an arresting exploration into how we can work together and how we can fall apart when leadership fails, and citizens forget their responsibilities in the building of a nation or indeed a giant tent. I cannot imagine a more needed or more poignant subject for young people to interrogate, to understand and to move through.
There was a lot at stake and you could feel it. ‘The Tent’ held a mirror up to us; Who really are we in this digital age, where so many are de-sensitised, so many have forgotten our democractic responsibilties, and so many expect others to do the work. The spoken word was rhythmical and faultless and I’m still repeating phrases as I go about my day. Which character am I? Am I talking about skin care while others do the building? Am I taking over and not giving others a chance to contribute?
The show was surprising at the beginning – weaving us the audience around the physical space to view the parameters with our own bodies and feel its potential and its limitations. Multimodal in its delivery, we never knew from where the characters would emerge, or whose voice we were listening to, or which footage on the wall was supporting or juxtaposing the words and movement. ‘The Tent’ was unexpected in its construction and unexpected in its emotional punch.
This show taught me more about the beauty of democracy than Question Time, and lay more foundational bricks than the Australian democracy unit in school. We could feel it. We could see it in action. We held it in our hands. We smelt it in the popcorn and we latched onto different characters who mirrored our own traits. As the movements loosened, and the music built, characters became dictators, followers, leaders and total anarchists.
They learned and grew as the build took place. But as the rage intensified and ropes were hoisted, consensus became harder to reach and this Bildungsroman merged into a manifesto; a call to fight against this current war of indifference. Do we care about the build if the fight is too hard? These young performers danced through their discomfort and raged against political polarisation and echo chambers and they triumphed.
This isn’t a fairytale ending; the final scene was a stark warning. As the last remaining pockets of air expelled from the fabric, the health of our democracy was brutally brought into question. Can we salvage what we have lost?
And the audience was not idle in this … not external — We held the tent’s contents, (me? a Rubik’s cube, which I made sure I didn’t mess up) keeping it all safe while the external rose and fell and the visions clashed. Everyone had a part to play and nobody could bow out.
This country needs these young people on a national stage so that we might wake up from our slumber and build together. Thank you Fling. Thank you yet again for shaking us awake and reminding us of what matters here in this polarised space — Unity.
