Sonic Youth Gossip - couple of reviews from my latest show

Trouble On Planet Earth
The Border Project
Fringe factory Theatre
Crumpet Theatre
Until Sun 16 March

Here you'll find one of the funnest - and smartest - things to ever grace a stage in Adelaide - a choose-your-own-adventure play with 24 possible endings and god-knows how many possible scenes and narrative paths. And how does it work? Well, finding that out is half the fun, suffice to say 'choices' are derived from the audience democratically, via supercool little flashing devices.

A description of the story can't really go past the first scene for obvious reasons, though it's important enough - it's where the character which the audience actually inhabits, that's to say is, is described.

As such the whole thing, apart from being ridiculously fun and funny, is set up cleverly as a play on the you/'me' dynamic in modern commercial and political culture. Apart from the fact that you are the main character and you are doing the choosing, they cheekily reference you, the audience member, every chance they get in the same faux-personalised (and ridiculous) way we see every time we see some pensive advert telling us about the importance of individuality or our electronic device says 'hi!' to us. Appropriately their interface for doing this is an idealised female form projected on the screen above the stage, not only addressing you as if you were the only one in the audience, but doing so in classic sexy, faux-intimate fashion!

And characters and narrators plea directly with the audience at 'choice-points', appealing to social values and instinctive, selfish greed alternately in order sway voters between choices, which produces the same sort of uncommitted fickleness we often see in democratic culture but which is just pure fun in this context.

So great ideas, cheeky subversion, and all in a gloriously fun and accessible package - 'Trouble On Planet Earth' seriously kicks-ass! Don't just go see it, see it 24 times.

William McGinley

TROUBLE ON PLANET EARTH

Crumpet Theatre, Fringe Factory Theatre (old Balfours Pie Factory), Elizabeth St, Adelaide, until March 16.

Four and a half stars out of five.

DON'T be put off by the Fringe guide blurb for this show which describes it as a ``choose your own adventure'' style interactive play. This makes it sound somewhat daggy, when it is, in fact, incredibly cool. Here's why:

- Because the play (written by local lad Finegan Kruckemeyer) has 24 possible endings, more than 60 possible characters (played by just five actors) and a myriad of possible plot twists based on the audience's decisions, you can see it more than once and enjoy it all over again. Really.

- Each audience member gets to control the action with a funky little gadget (developed and made locally) that glows different colours depending what angle you hold it at. The majority vote is tallied via wireless technology, and the actors immediately change the play to suit.

- It's fresh, slick, modern and so sharp it could have your eye out.

- Cameron Goodall is in it.

Plus it's on twice a night most nights until the end of the Fringe, so there's really no excuse for you to miss it.

The Border Project is quickly establishing itself as Adelaide's uber cool company to watch - get on board now and you'll be able to say you "saw it when".

PETRA STARKE