THEATRE
Written & directed by Nathan Ellis
By Subject/Object (UK)
Part of Melbourne Fringe Festival;
At Trades Hall Common Room until 12 Oct 2025
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: **** (4)
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 4 Oct 2025. KH
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| work.txt _(c) Alex Brenner |
work.txt, one of two shows by UK company, Subject Object, in Melbourne Fringe, has no actors at all! The audience does all the work.
As in the company’s other show, Instructions, all directions (the instructions) are on the screen for the audience. There is not a single actor in sight. The company’s director appears after the end to say thanks and ask us to spread the word.
As one, we read the instructions on the screen. Some
of the instructions are be read by specific groups: people who woke up early
this morning; people who earn under $90,000 a year; people who work at home; people
who work in an office; people thinking, “I just spent $32 on a show with no script
and no actors”; people who came with somebody else knowing nothing about the
show and are really bored and would like to leave.
We all read our relevant bits, feeling a bit awkward but realising that we’re not
going to be forced on stage or compelled to do anything weird or embarrassing,
apart from admitting we earn too much or too little to be acceptable.
Individual volunteers, then the entire audience are asked to go on stage, pick up a Jenga block and place it somewhere in the space. What evolves as we build, looks like a strange cityscape. This becomes part of a scene in is a contemporary gallery in a city.
As we become more comfortable, the instructions asked for a man or a woman to read a line. A random person just pipes up and reads the line.
The instructions ask for a volunteer to raise their hand, and for that person to come on stage, take the microphone and answer questions about his name. Tonight, he is Bailey: B.A.I.L.E.Y. He spells it out for us.
Bailey is now central to the story. Two volunteers go on stage to read a short scene together. Then another two, hen another two. A narrative is emerging.
Work.txt references work, workplaces and working conditions, social media, brand marketing, social inequity, capitalism, the environment - the list goes on.
We even sing a Céline Dion song as one. It was like community choir meets karaoke.
The final long treatise is presented by an AI robotic voice and deals with what happens after a day, a week, a year, 50 years,100,000, years, a billion years after Bailey’s episode at his workplace. (No spoilers here. Well, not many.)
Work.txt is smart and witty, but also extremely challenging: socially, politically and environmentally.
This is worth seeing and it’s really a lot of fun. It’s a show that challenges theatrical conventions and is the sort of show that should be part of the Fringe. Take note, Melbourne!
if you go, participate fully. You won’t see anything else like it in town at the moment.
Kate Herbert
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| work.txt @ Soho -(c) Alex Brenner |
Credits
a production by SUBJECT OBJECT
written and directed by Nathan Ellis
creative producers Emily Davis and Eve Allen
dramaturgy by Ben Kulvichit and Sam Ward
technical design by Harry Halliday
lighting design by Danny Vavrećka
music and sound design by Tom Foskett-Barnes
additional dramaturgy by Charlotte Fraser and Grace Venning
producer (AUS) Harry Dowling
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