A Large Audience in Attendance, Nov 25, 2000

A Large Audience in Attendance, by Brian Lipson

at The Royal Society of Victoria, Nov 25 until December 3, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Brian Lipson's solo show about British scientist, Francis Galton, is one of the most riveting performances this year. The writing is complex, intelligent and colourful, the style absurd and Lipson's performance outrageous and hilarious.

Lipson makes imaginative leaps using Galton's eclectic scientific interests and his recognised genius as the starting point for a fascinating theatrical event.

We enter, via a cramped foyer and narrow stairway, the upstairs chamber of The Royal Society building in Latrobe Street. This entry echoes Galton's peculiar image of the conscious mind as a chamber with an adjoining antechamber in which ideas wait to enter the consciousness.

Lipson, dressed initially in full period costume, is seated in a tiny replica of a Victorian study, jammed with odd scientific devices, projection equipment, lamps, candles, umbrellas and pictures.

This is not merely an impersonation or characterisation of Galton nor is it a dramatisation of his life and work. Lipson/Galton is constantly conscious of being played by an actor.

He refers to the actor, reminds us he is faking, that us Galton is dead and that this is a theatrical environment which must abide by the conventions of theatre. He even writes 'Mr. Lipson' on his forehead to reinforce that this is an actor.

There is no logical sequence to the dialogue. Lipson/Galton dives from rough experiments which end in his being kicked in the face by his own boot (hilarious) to lantern slides demonstrating his theory of eugenics. (frightening)

Galton's obsession with the nature of the Jewish physiognomy is at the core of Lipson's interest in him. Galton was the first to study eugenics. He proposed the perfecting of the human race by selective reproduction. He was the precursor to all that was evil in the Nazis racial purification.

Lipson leaps about both inside his tiny Victorian cubicle and amongst the audience. He manipulates our behaviour as much as his own or Galton's. He both ridicules and fears Galton's bizarre behaviour and experimentation.

This is the perfect combination of theory and practice, theatre and reality, present and past, truth and fiction. It is a splendid, disturbing and compelling performance by a skillful actor with impeccable comic timing.

By Kate Herbert