Just like going to an old fashioned picture show the evening started with a short play. A group of performers from a Milk Crate Theatre workshop introduced themselves as if we, the audience, were surfing through the dial on an old radio. They even provided the static between stations. There was an excellent Radio National voice, some poetry and some amusing improvisation.

The feature looked at the drama and build up to a few unfortunate incidents in the street and how most people blindly walk past but it also investigated how to stand up and intervene. The characters were mostly drawn from the socially marginalised members of our community and gave an insight into the immediacy of their lives. The acting from Stephanie Brown, Carla Cameron, Michael Godlee, Graeme Rhodes and Sarah Woods was passionate and entertaining. and Sarah Emery’s direction was very clear.

This production then jumped to another level. We were warned that this  was going to be an interactive forum theatre experience. Theatre always is dynamic and involves an interplay between the audience and performers but this relational performance offered a new level of engagement.

Beck Ronkson and Graham Stoney introduced themselves as jokers: similar to the emcees for the evening. They invited the audience to suggest other ways that people might deal with the scenarios presented. Audience members made various suggestions and they were then invited to perform their suggestions in the revised scenarios. The result was some very thoughtful and engaging theatre. The actors’ vulnerabilities became the audience member’s vulnerabilities when they were required to interact with the cast up on stage.

YOU ARE HERE was a thought provoking piece of theatre. There was plenty of merit in the way it raises awareness of less fortunate members of society and the wider community’s responses to them.

YOU ARE HERE opened at The Wayside Theatre, Potts Point, 26th March. There will be performances at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre on 1st and 2nd of April.

For more about YOU ARE HERE, visit http://www.milkcratetheatre.com/