Small Metal Objects

Back to Back Theatre have presented this award-winning production at major festivals nationally and internationally since its 2005 premiere.

Director Bruce Gladwin with co-devisors/performers Simon Laherty, Sonia Teuben, Genevieve Morris and Jim Russell have created a work that is both humble and thematically complex. 

Small Metal Objects is a series of moments captured in time against a backdrop of societal mundanity.  The audience are confined in raked, arena-type seating, backs to the ocean and gazing out to the buzz of activity in Moseley Square.  As we anticipate and then watch the performance, it is us that become spectacle as passers-by observe our headphone-wearing group. Correspondingly, the community in the Square are unwitting extras within the performance, and fiction co-existing with reality presents many other layers during the 50 minute performance.

Through said headphones, a rich score and soundscape by Hugh Covill signals a beginning with dialogue following.  It is not immediately clear who is speaking amid the crowd in the Square but the conversation is between two close friends.  The topics range from dedication to family, love, the lack of love and what that may mean to pets, loss and future fears: ‘I don’t want to lose you Gary’. 

Two other characters are eventually heard and picked out from the crowd at a distance: a pressured, suited lawyer followed by the ‘change management’ professional brought in to find a solution to perceived problems.  What is spoken is skilfully juxtaposed with thematic content.  There are both subtle and obvious status shifts represented by physical spacing and positioning, or the looming of taller/more powerful characters over those of smaller stature. Status also modifies as words are exchanged and power plays by seemingly more adept characters are shut down by the immutable values of another.

Are these ‘small metal objects’ to do with coin and the skewed economics of the haves and have nots? Could they be the barbs and asides we toss unthinkingly, or indeed purposefully, at others?  What is the value of a human life, the reach of our humanity, and how do we choose to exist in the world?

Lisa Lanzi

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