BWW Reviews: LIKE ME Draws The Audience Into A Surreal World and Invites Them To Find Meaning In The Chaos

Wednesday 1 July 2015, Merchant House, The Rocks

LIKE ME invites the audience to be immersed in the performance that surrounds them as they seek to understand the bizarre events that unfold around them. From the moment that the audience is greeted on the street by bold colored characters and ushered into the historic Merchant House the audience is invited to look for meaning in the chaos.

Each room of the Georgian house is devoid of traditional furniture and instead filled with piles of cables and broken technology, glowing destroyed computer screens and remnants of foam forming nests for the inhabitants that sleep in what could easily be installation art. As the 'visitors' move between rooms some of the personalities of the resting residents start to unfold as a character with a large sock like phallus disturbs their rest, concerned by the 'intruders'.

The 'creatures' look like a cross between Teletubbies and escapees from a Cirque du Soleil show in their jumpsuits with exaggerated features and oriental opera style facial features. A Blue character with a bold torso sings in a bathtub. A skinny yellow character with an odd growth on his shoulder cuddles a bundle of cables as he mutters in his sleep, curled in the fetal position. A pink clad creature sleep talks and walks as she moves around her room getting comfortable.

The 9 creatures are awoken and summoned to the first floor room where a rotund pale pink character sits atop a throne of computer and household hard rubbish. Each holds a stick of lights, reminiscent of a musical bell stick as they are overtaken by provocative dance, getting up close with the audience who has varying responses to the intrusion on their personal space. The performance includes a series of quests for items to fuel their power source, each of which is conveyed through gibberish and limited English. As each search begins, the audience is divided and herded into different areas of the house and more of the stories about the characters unfold but after a couple of these searches and regathering, it becomes a little tedious as the action fails to give much motivation for the search as no one can communicate the purpose of the quests.

The character in red, Poppy, with inflated breasts and newspaper hair explains that the room used to be a psychiatrists office. Others murmur about shock therapy. Most ask if "Like Me", seeking to build allegiances. Visitors are seen taking photos with the characters, later discovered to be at the insistence of the character rather than the visitor. Some Characters are more coherent than others but it is clear that most want to be liked and popularity means power to these creatures. The characters seek to gain attention through a range of means including sexuality, innocence, vanity, intellect.

The overall purpose and message is hard to decipher with different people gaining vastly different experiences and messages depending on who they follow and how they choose to engage with the work. Observing other visitors, some play along with the antics with no questions. Others challenge the instructions with their own ideas of freedom and free will. Few actually question what they are being asked to do.

LIKE ME is an interesting work for people wanting to be involved in their experience. For those wishing to sit back and watch the stories and reason unfold, they can try but the characters do like to get up close and challenge the viewer so for those with personal space issues, this may not be the right show to see. Depending on which rooms are entered and which characters are interacted with, the purpose and message may be different but there did not appear to be a clear call to action from this work that seems like it is trying to say something about society but missing the message due to the chaos.

LIKE ME

Merchant House, 43-45 George St, The Rocks 8pm

18th June - 11th July 2015