Concrete Playground

Downsizing has negative connotations. It puts one in mind of people in sweat-stained white collars carrying boxes filled with the few bits and pieces they hoped would make their office lives bearable. But for the theatre-maker, it suggests something a lot more interesting: a chance to switch from the grandeur of the expensive stage and play in more confined spaces.

Canadian writer-performer, Anthony Black, takes on the challenge of presenting Invisible Atom in a four feet square shaft of light. Within this tiny space he is able to unfold the life of Atom, a stockbroker, happy boyfriend and fresh father whose life is too perfect.

Black and director, Ann-Marie Kerr, have produced an intelligent work that links very human situations with the often confounding complexity of economics and physics. Moreso, they have proved how little we actually need to evoke an affective theatre experience.

Image by Nick Rudnicki