Anomie

Plasma television screens and single mattresses make up the modern urban world in this multimedia piece of physical theatre. Exploring the essential loneliness of individuals amid the relentless drive of city life, award-winning group Precarious presents an ambitious production based around six characters that inhabit the same apartment block but operate as unstable individuals.

Anomie offers a disturbing picture of 21st century life where human interaction is lost as characters hide behind technology and their own destructive anxieties. One woman tries to “keep calm in my life” with an endless list of superstitions; another finds connection to the world by bringing home handfuls of dark earth. A self-confessed social recluse waits at home for an email he deletes in order to maintain his sense of isolation, while overlooking the action is a surveillance character who films the others from a distance, visually—but never physically—connecting with them.

The production bristles with snapping choreography and makes brilliant use of space, creating depth and height by manipulating the screens and mattresses as well as utilizing a scaffold above the stage. Led by artistic directors Dan Shorten and Karla Shacklock the performers successfully invoke the energetic madness of the city with a combination of dance, sound and multimedia effects, but the performance as a whole gets lost in its own anomie, with the characters remaining resolutely alienated from the audience as well as each other. This ties in well with the ideas examined, but the lack of engagement mars an otherwise impressive and vibrant performance.