The Rug

The Rug is the new show by the stalwart performer and composer Ben Grant. This is a satirical - operatic performance that delves into his ongoing middle- class-white-man crisis.

The sur-titles run across a middle-eastern hallway rug high above the stage. He stands to the side in a rather dapper yet disheveled beige suit. He blubbers in an operatic atonal voice as he recalls his childhood days at the corner milk bar, gazing at the lollies through the thick curved glass counter.

This is a farcical show that wrestles with the “great” Australian cultural cringe; an absurdist soul searching tale and an understanding of this mixed bag of high and low brow art forms. Grant relishes in his attempts to shake cultural boundaries.

He dons his plastic Godzilla outfit, shinning light on a frightening new world order, reflecting on racial prejudices while searching for answers in this nation’s colonial past. Switching his wigs, three in fact, with clown-like antics he is in his own Halloween hour of Samhain.

This is a frenzied and a highly energetic performance that is consistently divergent and contrary. The visual projections reflect his self-pronounced life cycle - clearly in his autumn years. The multi-faceted staging compliments this fraught performance and the lightning design (Paul Lim) is a peculiar mix of sharp tones complementing the cacophonous sound design.

Flora Georgiou