Review: This Kind of Ruckus

Published in the Sun-Herald

This Kind of Ruckus
Performance Space at CarriageWorks
Until 12 September
Tickets $15-30
Bookings 1300 723 038
Critic’s Rating 7/10


Whether it's Rugby League players in bouts of group sex, violence broadcast on plasma screens in bars across the city or a group of teenagers fighting in the street, there’s something disturbing about the circle of violence within our community and the way they all relate.

Theatre company Version 1.0’s most recent shows exposed various Howard Government stains using primary sources as material: the Australian Wheat Board inquiry, weapons of mass destruction and Guantanamo Bay to name just a few.

Now they turn their hand to the issue of violence within our society. Performers Danielle Antaki, Arky Michael, Jane Phegan, Kym Vercoe and David Williams open the production playing caricatures of cheerleaders and make the Rugby League industry a clear target.

With their unique didactic style that uses multimedia (Sean Bacon and Gail Priest) with physical movement, the group have created a show full of striking imagery that creates a link between the reasons, excuses and consequences of violence.

[But the drama floats off and tries to incorporate other elements of social violence when the production may have been better served with a direct attack on the football code and the responsibility it bares.]

This Kind of Ruckus may not be as powerful as their previous work, but it still carries an important message that reminds us that violence affects us all.