Review: Stories from the Waiting Room at Melbourne Fringe Digital
Review by Greg Gorton
A lot of people have misconceptions when it comes to Melbourne Fringe. To believe the marketing, it is about not-very-fringe shows (generally cabaret or comedy) that you have to go into the city for and fork out a bunch of money in the hope they are good. Most of the time they are, but that is beside the point. The point is this: Melbourne Fringe also contains shows that don’t cost you a cent. Melbourne Fringe contains shows that you can watch at home.
Stories from the Waiting Room: Lived Experiences of Disability Rights is both of these things. More importantly, it may end up being my favourite show of the year. A powerful work about the rights of those with disability, told by those with lived experience, using a wide array of techniques, this show is raw, funny, provoking, and most definitely Fringe.
The set for this show is perfect. It opens on a pile of chairs you only ever seem to find in medical waiting rooms. They are thrown about, a mess. Slowly, the performers arrive to “deal with” the chairs, whether that means navigating them with canes or wheelchairs, or helping each other find an order and structure to them. In many ways this simple moment encapsulates the entire show.
These chairs remain the only set while a number of props and costumes come and go. You’ll find inflatable pencils, clown noses, and more cardboard boxes than you could count. In the end, though, it is the chairs, on a black box stage, and the people in them.
The show itself is a series of scenes or moments that include dance, poetry, plays, fairy tales, musical theatre, and verbatim. Somewhat akin to Sarah Kane’s famous “4.48 Psychosis”, some parts feel stripped from direct encounters with support workers or government officials. I was quite impressed by script-work put into the show, as well as much of the overall narrative structuring. I suspect the success is partly due to the involvement of the always talented Megan J Riedl, who also performs.
I was also very impressed by the production quality of this show both as a live performance and digital event. Remembering those “fun” times during the All-digital Fringe during lockdown, I know that pulling off a “filmed theatre” show worth watching is difficult. The lighting and camera work for Stories from the Waiting Room is top notch. It’s also produced as a low sensory performance and includes clear hardcoded subtitles and Glenda Judd, an Auslan interpreter who feels very much a part of the show itself.
Beyond the higher quality general aesthetic of this production are two very essential aspects of the show that, for me, have put it high above others.
The first is the willingness to honestly address issues that people are rarely brave enough to do. It is easy to go “The NDIS is terrible”, but difficult to break down the good and bad within it. People know how wrong it is to say “well it is tough for everyone”, but we rarely explore the true consequences of such phrases. Honest discussions are had about requesting new iPhones, how you might feel about getting the disability pension, and why a disability can be so unique as to feel like your identity.
The second is the power of authentic representation, and performances by people with lived experience. As a theatre nerd, I couldn’t help but think of Boal who, in “Theatre of the Oppressed" , talked about theatre as a mode of catharsis or purging; a way to walk an audience through the function of removing flawed perspectives about a topic. Boal was also a big believer in making people the theatre creators, not those privileged few with their theatrical degrees. While Stories from the Waiting Room is definitely structured and presented as “traditional” modernist theatre. So much so that there was a temptation to question if it was a show that should undergo more rehearsal, or take advantage of it being filmed. I fear anyone who listens to such questions, because to do either would be to only subtract. In this production, there is that element of true connection, of the confronting real, that I so dearly love about the art form.
I cannot recommend this production more, and if it is both free and available in your own home, I’m not sure what excuse you really have.
