one4review | On 23, Aug 2017

Back to the Beadledom office to spend a shift with Max whose pristine desk is in sharp contract to the desk of his colleague Deborah. A nice touch at the start of the piece are the links to Beadledom Omega when Max picks up a flower that Deborah has left for him, and finds the pen that she had borrowed. Max has a similar routine to Deborah but this time he is creating life with a process of mixing chemicals and feeding them into a machine which creates babies for humankind visible on animated screens. Again there is a machine malfunction which allows Max to interact with a puppet behind the screen and with this connection he does what he can to improve the puppets life. This interaction leaves Max with an obvious yearning for something more than his routine as he leaves the stage with a flourish. I enjoyed this part more, as the less frenetic churning of data made for a more coherent story line. In fact I left wanting more – will Deborah and Max ever appear together? Hopefully part 3 will come to the festival next year and I can have a happy ending!

Reviewed by Rona
Underbelly – Iron Belly
Aug 24 & 26
2.50pm