Monolith (Andrew Simpson + Uther Dean)

The inception, creation, refinement, performance and deconstruction of a new NZ play within the five days of the Arcade. This work is a performance installation that lays bare the entire creative process behind the premiere of a new work of theatre - from the moment of inspiration to the closing
night party and everything in-between.
On each of the five days of the Arcade, the work moves through a different stage of development, building towards the premiere performance. Each day is clearly scheduled and ends with something markedly performative - read-throughs, dress rehearsals, etc - allowing audience members to make appointments with the work and return to it.
The wide-open storage container is dominated by a large monolith - containing a printer, to materialise the pages of the script as they are written. Once the writing commences, the director, designers, actors and stage manager is forced to work around the metronomic emergence of new pages as the monolith spits out material, always being forced to move on when a new page arrives.
To interact with or to encounter this work is to see a wide open box swarming with life, buzzing with creation, and to witness that life change drastically over time in service of the smallest thing in the world - an idea.