Olivia Tennet in 360 - A Theatre of Recollections.
Auckland's 2014 theatre season kicks off with a revival of a startlingly original show that premiered at the 2010 International Arts Festival in Wellington.
A very clever staging concept places the audience in the centre of a donut-shaped space and swivel chairs allow you to follow the action swirling around
the circumference of a raised ring.
This inversion of customary perspectives is enhanced by placing the event on the main stage of the Civic Theatre which at one point delivers a spectacular view of the empty auditorium.
The seating is accessed via a corridor that takes us past the backstage machinery and the swivel chairs generate a democratic, at times knee-knocking, sense of intimacy as audience members choose where to direct their focus.
The "theatre of recollection" in the show's sub-title refers to a non-linear narrative in which past and present are jumbled together in a series of poetic images that evoke the unpredictable and unreliable nature of memory.
