The theatre group Too Many Weapons have produced a fascinating and intriguing drama. It is an engrossing documentary substantially narrated live but also includes videos, slides and audio clips augmenting the performance. Whether it is a documentary or a play is irrelevant as it is such a great piece of theatre.
KIDS KILLING KIDS is the story of how the four Melbourne based performers of Too Many Weapons (David Finnigan, Georgie McAuley, Jordan Prosser and Sam Burns-Warr) travelled to Manila in 2011 to work on a project with a local theatre company called Sipat Lawin. Too Many Weapons wanted to produce a live version of the Japanese horror novel and movie Battle Royale.
They explain all this as part of the evening’s performance and how their time in The Philippines was initially very typical of young backpackers in a third world country. They were amused and blown away by the noise and chaos of the streets, the squalor and the exotic food, sights and smells. They dance and mime to Lil John’s Outta Your Mind to help explain some of Manila’s craziness.
They teamed up with the Sipat Lawin Ensemble and gave them characters to develop and parameters to develop short scenarios. The members of Sipat Lawin Ensemble create characters as the students of the fictitious Our Lady of Guadalupe High School. Too Many Weapons then assembled the output from the students and returned to Australia to write and finalise the script.
Battalia Royale went into production in The Philippines and drew crowds of hundreds for each performance. These crowds were much larger than a typical independent theatre production would draw in Manila. The crowds were mostly attracted to grotesque violence of the performance. The crowd seems to have become a Greek chorus having a cathartic experience. The violent subject material and the crowds’ response drew extreme reactions from social media, Reuters, CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera and the UN’s Subcommittee for the Victims of Torture.
The presenters explain their feelings about the somewhat out of control developments that continued to snowball. Their exposition is a very thoughtful piece of theatre reflecting on theatre. They examine the purpose of theatre and their responsibility to the audience and the cast members with candour and honesty. Too Many Weapons’ script is excellent, Bridget Balodis’ direction is sharp and Melanie Koomen’s design is exactly what is required. I thoroughly recommend Kids Killing Kids. Unfortunately, the short season finishes at The Joan Sutherland Theatre Penrith on Saturday, 19th October.