Tiny Universe
Collaborative Work
Directors: Margaret Politis & Natalie Rose
PACT, Erskineville
May 20-29, 2021
You could watch TV or Netflix, but if you really wanted a completely absorbing and dynamic 60 minutes of entertainment you could see Tiny Universe, co-presented by Milk Crate Theatre and Shopfront Art Co-Op. Showing for a very short season, Tiny Universe deserves a longer season and a more extensive audience.
This brave and unforgettable production was developed in collaboration with a team of cast and creatives, including performers Desmond Edwards, Harrison Bishop, Lana Filies, Lily Hayman, Lucy Watson, Matthias Nudl, Steve Konstantopoulos and Nick Vagn and features the work of composer James Peter Brown and lighting designer Liam O’Keefe. While it seems to come together so seamlessly, this very short hour is the result of dedicated effort from the two directors.
The stage set is spectacular and at first sight delivers the narrative that is about to unfold. A series of eight boxes, four to each level, each lit in varying ways and furnished with a few items reflecting the self-image and inner life of each of its inhabitants. It looks rather like a cross section of high-rise flats or ornamental wall-mounted display boxes or a single moment in which we are given an insight into eight people’s worlds.
What we are seeing seems an essentially urban story as the city – despite governmental attempts to move the disadvantaged out the sightline of the new global elite – is still a congregating point for the under-privileged. The current pandemic has, however, made the tiny universe of the apartment or personal private space central to our way of inhabiting the world rather than the public or common space. This sense of confinement is in some ways the permanent experience of our eight characters as they are isolated and excluded from “normal” – as they see it – human relationship networks.
As each enters their allotted space – lit to match their mood – they are on display. We hear first about the way they present to the world: through their carefully contrived FB image, as a die-hard supporter of the Cronulla sharks, as – unusually – a devotee of hermit crab racing, as a elderly and endearing eccentric, as a dreamer, as a truckie and as a gym fanatic. However, as each, safe in their private space, reveal more of their inner life we see that while each has a different mode of coping, they all struggle to feel accepted, to fit in, to feel that they really matter.
The most poignant moments of Tiny Universe are those in which our eight friends – and by now we seem to be so close to them – recall the moments in which they felt truly happy. Most poignant of all is the conclusion offered by the dreamer that although the world is an uncertain and painful place, he can still find value in his own existence within that world.
Congratulations to Margaret Politis from Milk Crate and Natalie Rose from Shopfront. Both their organisations are dedicated to giving a voice to those who are under-represented and in helping their artists to become “the best versions of themselves” they can possibly be. If the opportunity to see Tiny Universe comes your way, seize it. You’ll be well rewarded.
