LONE | Australian Arts Review

A thoughtful and gentle work that asks an audience to explore ideas of aloneness and loneliness as they intersect with childhood and adulthood, THE RABBLE and St Martins presents LONE at Arts House from 8 June 2018.

Created by an ensemble of eleven children aged eight to eleven, LONE offers a glimpse into their privately constructed worlds. The young performers are asked to imagine a room designed to be inhabited alone. Audience members are asked to navigate this imagined world, perhaps eventually catching a glimpse of their own childhood.

Looking in from the outside, LONE creates an opportunity for adults to be privy to a young person’s world of passionate dreams, vivid imagery and dark secrets. Presented as a performance installation, LONE is a series of short fictions that places safety, privacy, authority and the adult gaze under thoughtful investigation.

Creators Emma Valente and Kate Davis from THE RABBLE explain that LONE invites audiences to recall their own childhood experiences and secrets, “We’re creating a unique experience that is both distanced and intimate. We want adults to questions their own childhood and what it is about childhood that they want to protect.”

THE RABBLE are a group of visionary women who have consistently produced bold, provocative and visually stunning theatrical experiences and have forged an unrivalled reputation for producing experimental theatre of the highest quality. Their work interrogates the human condition, through a combination of surreal and visceral aesthetics, feminist sensibility and the application of deeply researched, intellectual rigour.

As one of Australia’s leading companies working with children, St Martins produce bold and disruptive theatre made with children and teenagers for adult. Recent new works include For The Ones Who Walk Away, Gonzo, The Bacchae and Fitter. Faster. Better. made in collaboration with leading festivals and companies, including the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Festival, Dark MoFo, Melbourne Fringe, Darwin Festival and Dance Massive.

Creators: Emma Valente, Kate Davis Performers: The St Martins Ensemble Set & Costume Designer: Kate Davis Lighting & Sound Designer: Emma Valente Production Management: Rebecca Etchell, Gwen Holmberg-Gilchrist Stage Manager: Cass Fumi Associate Artist: Katrina Cornwell Producer: Tahni Froudist