Machina @ La Boite Theatre Company

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Thu 08 May 2014 - Sat 24 May 2014

Richard Jordan's Machina opened at La Boite Theatre Company's The Loft on the same day someone flicked me the link to the viral video Look Up . It was uncanny timing given that both mediums explore the modern day dependence on social media and, ironically, how this serves as a barrier to our connection with others.

David Sergeant is the unseen character around which Machina's action revolves. David has taken the dramatic step of 'going inside' the social network Machina , uploading his consciousness and discarding his body in an act of faith purported to bring him immortality. Intriguing a premise as this is, however, it's not the point of this thought-provoking play. Rather, acknowledging the age old themes of death, grief and loss, Machina concerns itself with those left behind.

[ADVERT]These include David's mother Isobel (Kaye Stevenson) who is having a hard enough time mastering basic computer skills let alone the concept of her son's disappearance into the digital ether. David's ex-lover Tom (Liam Nunan) bounces between unsatisfactory relationships, unwilling to reconnect and recommit. His sister Amanda (Luisa Prosser) discards her own identity while desperately trying to regain her mother's attention. Ultimately they are all forced to make a choice - to follow David into the virtual world or reach out and touch their flesh-and-blood fellows.

Set in an unsettling space between reality and the digital realm, Machina is not a comfortable play to watch. Its frequent dream sequences, non-linear shifts in action and overlapping threads of a thousand voices heighten the sense of disorientation and disconnection. Fortunately, there is ample humour to lighten the mood, from the awkward courtship between Tom and Scott (Jack Kelly) to Adam's (Peter Rasmussen) cut-and-dried social commentary and the mischief contrived by Hannah (Judy Hainsworth).

The play is a deeply personal one for Jordan who, plagued with depression some years ago, resolved to stop writing, moved to Melbourne and worked a succession of fill-in jobs. "No matter how much I tried to run away from my pain, I could never escape my own skin," he explains. "Except, of course, when I went online." Jordan adds that there have never been more mediums with which to connect with one another. "(But) the prospect of making contact with another human being remains as terrifying and elusive as ever."

Machina is part of La Boite Indie's 2014 program which serves as one of the major platforms for independent theatre in Australia. It was presented in conjunction with MadCat Creative Connections with the support of QPAC. Other performances in this year's series include 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog, Mullah Nasrudin by Liz Jabour, Hedonism's Second Album by David Burton and Claire Christian and Angel Gear and Dangerfield Park by Sven Swenson.

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!date 08/05/2014 -- 24/05/2014
%wnbrisbane