By Sophie Barker
Those Well Oiled Members was the inaugural production of 2050 Theatre, created and performed by the new student group who are “dedicated to exploring the interlinking of climate change anxieties/activism with art.” The show follows the last eight people remaining on earth as they live out their final few days on an active oil rig, squabbling, plotting and manipulating one another for their own enjoyment. This ragtag team mainly consists of rich baron Hester Hornbrook (Joe Eidelson), his highly-strung son William (Thomas Hodge), their mischievous butler Charles McGillicutty (Jack Palit), hard-working oil rig engineer Brent Underwood (Savier D’Arsie-Marquez), the glorious Gwenyth Paltrow (Rachel Gabell) and the hip new Pope of the Catholic Church (Aaditya Gupta).
When the baron announces that he is surrendering his enormous fortune, Brent and Gwenyth begin concocting plans to convince him that they are each the only rightful heir. Under the guise of assistance, Charles deviously leads them astray. Before long Brent has accidentally thrown a celebration of Hester’s wife’s death—exactly seven years after the event—and Gwenyth engages in a hilarious courtship with William in which she conceals her disgust for him by feigning affection, ultimately trying to get to the baron’s fortune. William in turn hides his obsessive adoration under the guise of playing it cool to reel her in. Several murders, some family therapy and religious conversion later, no one has achieved their goals, and as they lie dead on the stage, Hester is finally seduced by the strangely sexual oil barrel he has dreamt of for the past hour.
If you think this plot seems completely ridiculous and at least a little bit logically flawed—how did Gwenyth Paltrow end up here, and why does she seem so unphased? What’s the point of fighting over money which surely has no remaining value?—you’d be entirely correct. But once the show begins, none of that matters. The complete randomness of each moment and all the plot twists quickly become the expectation and offer up a space in which to briefly step away from the concerns of our reality, instead investing in the final trivialities of humanity’s last moments.
At the hands of such comedy veterans, it is no surprise that the audience swayed between hearty chuckles and all out laughter for the full hour-long show.
Whether more subtle or glaringly on the nose cheap jokes, the cast handled tension and release with expertise. Repeated gags only got funnier with every iteration and self-aware quips about their limited resources or straying into stereotypes were well-timed and superbly delivered. Whilst occasionally it seemed that the play paused to make way for a joke, rather than seamlessly slotting it in, these moments were presented with such conviction that the audience happily indulged.
As both cast and creators, the pride and dedication with which they performed added another level to the enjoyment of the show, especially as they relished in moments of hilarity and foolishness. Each member of the cast brought their character to life, but none with quite as much conviction as Hodge’s standout performance as the stuttering, stiff, shunned and only slightly resentful William.
Supporting the wonderful cast, the creative stagecraft facilitated the comedic elements of the production. Eden McLean’s simple yet effective costuming alongside Andrea Salvador’s lighting design unlocked an innovative new theatrical space, with the Hornbrooks’ stark white outlines seen roaming the stage in the blackouts. Though initially this had seemed like an oversight, blackouts were quickly established as an intermediary space in which the characters became aware that they were inhabited by actors. As Eidelson walked his wheelchair on stage before sitting down (reminiscent of Hester’s initial entrance) and Hodge danced around William’s duelling practice before the lights came up, the audience was treated to a fleeting insight into the actors’ preparation. Even the stage crew’s short performance stint—caught by an ‘unexpected’ lights up whilst mopping the stage after an extravagant wine splashing scene—exploited our expectations of theatre’s inner-workings to great comedic effect.
The whole team repeatedly demonstrated their proficiency in both the language of comedy and that of theatre, playing to an intelligent audience well-versed in their immediate theatrical, cultural, and historical context. However, placing most of the action on the floor to the left of the singular set piece limited the potential to depict complex power relationships and tensions, or simply diversify the images presented through the greater use of vertical and horizontal spaces made possible by Bridie Turner’s set design. Unaided by the empty space between the set piece and the back curtain, the actors sometimes felt as if they were lost in space on the large stage. That said, these are the final humans left in a globe of empty space, so perhaps an abundance of space is entirely appropriate.
As the first work in what will surely be an impressive repertoire of climate conscious performances, this production succeeds in examining current issues and anxieties without bearing down on the enjoyment of the production. In the play’s final moments, as every character drops dead and the ocean is lit on fire, there is no heavy-handed driving home of a moral. Instead, we revel in an appropriately absurd ending to a ludicrous plot. Only with increasing time away from the whimsy of Those Well Oiled Members’ post-apocalyptic world do we see the various hyperbolic parallels to our lives and register the sheer magnitude of the play’s accusations. We are left to grapple with the impending doom which lingered behind the farce and dwell on the impacts of individuals’ and large-scale corporations’ action in both perpetuating and counteracting the climate crisis.
2050 Theatre’s first creation was culturally current, tapping into present-day anxieties, ideologies, and attitudes of individualisation, apathy and self-serving behaviours, and their limited success in combatting the end of the world.
2050 Theatre’s original play Those Well Oiled Members ran August 18th to 20th at the new Guild Theatre.
Sophie Barker (she/her) is a chronic rambler and overthinker, studying music and liberal arts in Naarm/Melbourne. She unleashes these tendencies onto any media and audience possible.
The Dialog 