LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE
Monday 26 May 2025
Jason Blake
“YES, IT TESTS YOUR PATIENCE. YES, IT’S DIFFICULT… BUT DAMN”
REVIEW
THE ANARCHY [1138-53]
Given the title and the content, giving this a star rating seems as crazy an exercise as the show itself
Self-described “Theatrical Sabboteurs”*, the UK and Melbourne-based Doppelganster return to Sydney to make merrie in this maddening, challenging and wholly idiosyncratic exercise inspired by the years 1138-53, when Olde Englande, riven by succession issues, dissolved into decades of rebellion and blood feuding.
For a non-stop two hours and 15 minutes, performer-auteurs (and siblings) Tobias Manderson-Galvin and Kerith Manderson-Galvin hold the space, delivering text and action over intermittent tracks of gothic grind, while playing fast and loose with the fourth wall and pointedly failing to deliver everything promised in the press release (jousting, flying arrows, siege towers, etc).
Much of the spoken component of the show is derived from a text resembling some ultra-pedantic walkthrough of an open world fantasy video game, complete with every optional twist and turn. This is fed to the performers through earpieces, which the performers then speak out loud.
The “headphone verbatim” technique isn’t a new idea (director Roslyn Oades pioneered its use in Australian theatre to great effect in the 2000s), but the Manderson-Galvins put their own chaotic spin on it, frequently digressing while attempting to keep up with the torrent of mostly tedious description to be translated into live speech.
Scenes are haphazardly enacted, occasionally abandoned (in order to make the audience a cup of cordial at one point; to fiddle with sound levels in another). A smoke machine and leaf blower are used to unimpressive effect (the latter thwarted by a dead battery) and there are several costume changes. To what end is not entirely clear.
The first walk-out came after 20 minutes or so. Others followed, farewelled with a cheery word or two from the performers.
Yes, it tests your patience. Yes, it’s difficult to see the point of it all. As for “anarchy” … well, it’s a show in a theatre and you pay money for it. But damn, I enjoyed its determination, its uncompromising energy (Tobias in particular runs himself ragged) and the cheap thrill that lies in not being able to anticipate what the end point might be.
Giving it a star rating seems as ridiculous an exercise as the show itself. I was on a sliding scale – one to five – all evening. That line from Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf comes to mind: “ANARCHIST EVENING ENTERTAINMENT. MAGIC THEATER. ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY.”
If that sounds inviting to you, then go.
*Doppelgangster says: Not in fact self-described that’s a quote from The Age (2016)