For many of us, childhood gave much more time to imagine and play. We can find flashes of those simpler times through watching friends at primary school in Recess.
Now in its third season, the work was devised by Nina Mountford, Brigid Quonoey and Taylor Reece. They also imbue a range of characters with (mostly) childlike body language and speech. It was unfortunate that seats to the side gave quite a limited view of their facial expressions and gestures.
Stage Astroturf is the grass of a school oval, and references to Tamagotchi pets places us somewhere around the peak of the craze in 1997. Mobile phones aren’t around to distract these kids from their own inventions.
The fringe blurb advises “In this place, the lines between past and future are blurred.” So it is that the various characters on offer might not just be precocious at times, as when they talk about having a calendar when they are an adult. They might have prescience about where their lives are going, and that these mostly carefree times have a limit.
One child understands that, as an adult, an occasional café catch-up with an old friend will be a poor substitute for recess shared every school day. It’s a bittersweet reflection on how jobs and commitments conspire to keep us from those who matter to us.
Perhaps it might have been better to let these on-stage “kids” be kids more of the time. The excursions into adult-level ambitions bring us a bit too close to thoughts of careers and recognition that we might hope to set aside through a return to childhood.
However, those seeking the joyfulness promised in the fringe blurb had glimpses of that. Frantic dress-ups and competitive games recalled how much fun it could be to play with your friends and live in the moment.
RECESS
Festival Hub: Trades Hall – The Square, Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton
Performance: Sunday 6 October 2024
Information: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Image: RECESS – photo by Gregory Lorenzutti
Review: Jason Whyte