Performance: COLD WAR
Performed by Doppelganger (UK/AUS)
Venue: Little Theatre,
Royal Croquet Club (RCC),
University of Adelaide campus
Date: Tuesday, 3 March, 2020
Score: 2/10
The Little Theatre on the University of Adelaide campus was the venue for a Fringe theatre performance that promised to challenge the audience with political gestures raising awareness of climate change. Ironically, the weather had changed to be rather cold and autumnal. The atmosphere was decidedly chilly, with no hint of global warming. Only 15 of us filed in to a theatre seating 150, and on the way in we were issued with ear plugs together with a warning that the performance would be pretty loud. Loud it was when the two performers – one male and one female – delivered (one could not say ‘sang’) some extremely loud and distorted punk lyrics. Any political messaging was completely lost, because it was impossible through the microphone distortion to discern any particularly, let alone any meaning from them.
It was hard to ascertain whether the performance was scripted or improvised. It appeared to be a kind of impromptu stream of consciousness with occasional remarks about a dying planet and ecological disaster lost in a fog of seemingly irrelevant patter.
Rather than leave, stuck it out until the end just to see if it would change or improve, but it did not. The punk posturing continued from start to finish and left the theatre none the wiser about anything to do with climate change or environmental awareness.
If you are a die-hard punk you might enjoy this show.
Reviewed by: Janine Kitson
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