[2014036] WOODCOURT: Jackson! Le diner est prêt!
Woodcourt Art Theatre @ The Coffee Pot
10:00pm, Thu 20 Feb 2014
“Part hypnosis, part self portrait,” suggests the blurb; “…about gaming, browsing and masturbation,” it goes on.
And that’s enough to pique my interest… after all, I’m into pretty much all of those things.
And so I find myself sitting in my third Woodcourt show with a much thinner crowd (a bit of a problem, given the room only holds about twenty), facing a screen that stretched from floor-to-ceiling, at the front of the “stage”. Onto that screen is projected…
…a face. Presumably belonging to the titular Jackson.
The face then takes us on an aural and textural journey that’s extremely reminiscent of many of the ASMR videos on YouTube; these all (seem to) share the traits of young people touching, scrunching, exploring arbitrary objects, whilst talking to the camera in an ever-so-slightly creepy quiet – yet earnest – manner. The face explores packaging materials for at least twenty minutes… and all the while I sat there thinking “Well, this is all mildly interesting, but…”
I freely admit: I just didn’t get “it”.
But then a countdown timer appears on the screen: ninety seconds start ticking away. And with each passing second, with each digit of the clock that whizzes by, tension rises; the anxiety induced by the finite duration becomes almost unbearable. The last seconds crawl by…
…And then, at the exact moment the countdown hits zero, there’s a click: the lights in the room come on. The latches holding the screen up release. The screen flutters to the floor. And, standing behind where the screen once was, is a man in a motorcycle helmet. He stands there a moment – was he looking at us, challenging us? – before he removes the helmet.
And suddenly, everything appears normal. The spell concocted by the countdown is broken.
Jackson – let’s just assume it’s Jackson – gives every impression that he’s engaging in his post-work decompression ritual. He dumps his helmet and jacket, and fires up his PC – one of the screens is prominently mirrored for the audience to observe. He fires up Minecraft and starts playing; moments later, a friend enters the game and they communicate via voice-chat. There’s a bit of small-talk between the two, before Jackson starts a lengthy monologue about Douglas Mawson… all whilst they continue playing. But once the Mawson story is over, Jackson’s friend leaves the game – he’s got other things to do – and Jackson shuts down his PC and…
…well, that’s pretty much it.
I’m still don’t quite get what Jackson! was actually trying to achieve. Was it just holding a mirror up to chunks of our current culture, searching for some recognition of absurdity? If so, I don’t know whether it really worked… but maybe that’s because it all looked so normal to me (the Minecraft bit, that is… the ASMR videos creep me out). But if that wasn’t the point, then I don’t know what to think… because it didn’t feel like Jackson! tried to actually do anything.
…Except for that amazing ninety seconds that bridged the scenes. That was an utterly compelling piece of theatre, and will remain in my memory for quite some time to come… but ninety seconds can’t support an entire show.
(36) WOODCOURT: Jackson! Le diner est prêt!: Everyday sounds. Minecraft. Mawson. Ninety amazing seconds in the middle. #ff2014 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 20, 2014