Back to Back Theatre's idiosyncratic voice circumnavigates the universe. The company's contemporary work defies convention, challenges logic and questions the imperative to be 'normal'.
A performance that sits between a concert and theatre show, Food Court features the ingenious vision of Back to Back Theatre and the music of The Necks, one of the great cult bands of Australia, who will improvise a driving score to each performance.
Set in the lush minimalism of an illuminated white void, the story of one woman's humiliation at a food court is played out in a psychological space constructed of light and sound. Luminously fragile, Food Court is a near death experience in a suburban wonderland.
Designed to be performed on a large proscenium (traditional or constructed), Food Court fills the cross arch with an 'other world'. A limitless visual spectacle, the 'ganzfeld' design (an optical phenomenon where there is nothing for the eye to focus on) creates a theatrical universe where perception is constantly in question.
The show's design is a continuation and development from the company's previous two works, soft and small metal objects. The work seeks to examine and re-assess the relationship between the actor and the architectural structure in which it is presented. The opportunity to return to the convention of the proscenium is a logical and fitting evolution in this process.
Back to Back Theatre
In its 20-year history, Back to Back Theatre has forged its own unmitigated relationship to theatre, developing a unique artistic voice and working process that supports its ensemble as the central creative entity.
The company's last major work, small metal objects premiered at the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival to critical and audience acclaim and won The Age Critics' Special Commendation. It toured to 13 cities in 2007, garnered the ZKB Acknowledgment Prize for "extraordinary artistic achievement" at Zuercher Teater Spektakel, and was critics' pick in The Guardian and TimeOut London for its season at the Barbican.
In 2008, small metal objects premieres at New York's Under the Radar festival, produced by Mark Russell and The Public Theater, before traveling to Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), PuSh International Performing Arts Centre (Vancovuer), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Burlington), On the Boards (Seattle) and Walker Art Center (Minneapolis).
Soft won The Age Critics' Award for Creative Excellence at its premiere at the 2002 Melbourne International Arts Festival before touring internationally in 2003.
The Necks are Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) who together conjure a chemistry that defies description in orthodox terms. These three musicians are among the most respected and in demand in Australia. Not entirely avant-garde, nor minimalist, nor ambient, nor jazz, the music of The Necks is possibly unique in the world today.
Back to Back Theatre was awarded the prestigious 2005 Sidney Myer Foundation's Performing Arts Award for it long-term contribution to the development of Australian theatre.
Contact:
Alice Nash
General Manager
Back to Back Theatre
PO Box 1257
Geelong VIC 3220
Tel +61 3 5221 2029
Fax +61 3 5229 0525
Mob 0400 893 661
info@backtobacktheatre.com
www.backtobacktheatre.com
Sarah Ford
Producer
Quaternaire
27 rue de L'Echiquier
1st Floor, Code: 0705
75010 Paris
Tel +33 (0) 1 53 34 03 02
Fax +33 (0) 1 53 01 38 36
sarah@quaternaire.org
