The Bowery Theatre in St Albans is hosting one of the most unique performances of Melbourne’s Fringe Festival this week.
The Body of Knowledge meditation experience involves teenagers from different locations outside of the theatre phoning remotely from their own individual homes.
Each audience member is given a mobile phone on arrival to facilitate their conversations with the young people.
As an inter-generational conversation unfolds, the teacher and the student, the adult and the child, the performer and the audience, begin to shift and entangle.
At the direction and instigation of the young telephone callers, the audience given an immersive insight into the sights and sounds of Generation Z.
As the work progresses, the young people give instructions to the audience to re imagine the theatre space around them.
The conversation that is set in motion creates an opportunity to rethink the ways in which knowledge is produced, acquired and shared.
It delves into issues of changes to bodies, changes in attitude, and changes to life.
The production was created by Samara Hersch, an artist and theatre director working between Europe, Australia and Asia.
Her practice investigates the encounter between contemporary performance and community engagement and her research explores intimacy as a political act, imagining different modalities that can be inhabited by non-professional performers and the public together.
The show launches on Saturday, October 5, and runs each night through until Thursday, October 10.
Tickets: melbournefringe.com.au/event/body-of-knowledge/
