Review: With Technology Invading Our Everyday, IN REAL LIFE Considers The Frightening Possibility Of A Highly Connected Disconnected Existence

Thursday 21st September 2017, 7:30pm Eternity Playhouse Darlinghurst

In an age when you can organise most things with technology, Julian Larnach's new play IN REAL LIFE extrapolates to a not too distant future where being connected is more important than connecting. The decidedly lo-tech production is a shocking warning against the lust for power, fame and as many 'connections' as one can generate as humanity is left by the wayside in favour of manipulated history and immortality.

Directed by Luke Rogers, this two hander considers the lives of Theresa (Anni Finsterer) and her grown up daughter Eva (Elizabeth Nabben). The highflying corporate ice-queen Sarah is the owner of a major corporation whose success lies in the creation and marketing of a home device that will do everything, think smart phone crossed with intelligent homes. The 20-something Eva has walked out on her job at her mother's company, disgusted at the product that promotes the degradation of human connection and has become an all-consuming focus of Theresa's life, hiding away in their secluded holiday home. When Eva vanishes after leaving the holiday home, the audience sees how Theresa interacts with the remaining people in her life along with her solutions to restore her daughter to her life, with the aid of advanced technology.

Rogers has steered away from the use of technology to tell the story, allowing Production Designer to present a world where the technology is physically unobtrusive but still affecting everything. The living space of Theresa's holiday retreat is ultra-modern, angles and lines of harsh concrete. Inside, the space is harsh and utilitarian, with designer plastic dining chairs positioned at a designer metal dining table and a Perspex side table sits beside the only concession to any semblance of comfort, a severe leather seat. Nature is held at bay from the home by a frosted glass sliding door cutting off the jungle garden from the sterile living area. Sian James-Holland's (Lighting Designer) strip lighting boarders the multiple floor levels and light streaming from the doorways and recessed bar shelf breaks up the expanse of grey. Strobes signify the passage of time. James Brown layers in an eerie tone, increasing the suspense and the futuristic tone. The uniformity and lack of individualism of the new world also carries through to the monochromatic costume selection that eventually has mother and 'daughter' dressed alike in Theresa's utopian view of her future.

Holding an important message about being wary of letting technology confuse the difference between being connected versus connecting and needing to understand our relationship with innovation, whether we are in control of it or if it has taken control of us, IN REAL LIFE is a futuristic thriller with a slow burn. Central character Theresa is presented with intensely unlikable severity by Finsterer who captures the essence of a corporate high flier who is consumed with greed and her own self-importance. She ensures that Theresa is seen as having lost all meaningful human connection to anyone that isn't paid to like her, and even then she has no respect for the hired help, referring to her cleaning lady as "The Woman". There is a brief glimmer of hope that Theresa may have some humanity, but even that is eroded in favour of personal goals and the desire to manipulate history.

As daughter Eva, Nabben is the warmer soul who realises the need for real human connection, not facilitated by screens and technology. Nabben also takes on the other minor roles of Theresa's assistant and the cleaning lady's daughter and the various iterations of how Theresa 'revives' Eva. With subtle differences in carriage, communication and clothing, Nabben ensures that it is clear she is inhabiting another role whilst the uniformity of having the same actor fill the roles plays to the message that Theresa doesn't see the individual as unique, believing that cloning will keep someone alive to satisfy her own selfish needs.

IN REAL LIFE is an intriguing work that does provoke contemplation of how we view technology, particularly in a world of smart phones, wearable devices and intelligent equipment. It's a message to put down the screen and have a human interaction. It is a wakeup call to remind us that money and power should not outweigh family and friendship and that we should be seeking an authentic life, not one orchestrated to meet an ends.

IN REAL LIFE

Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst

15 September - 15 October 2017

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