Reviewed by Caroline Stafford
‘The wetness in me sees the wetness in you.’ The chanting reaches fever pitch and I find myself rolling my shoulders and throwing my head back in unabashed joy as I embrace the true feeling of Wetness. Just a normal Friday night? Not here at The Wetness Centre.
Part workshop, part immersive theatre, The Wetness is an intimate, hour-long session where host Rose KB takes a selection of small soggy spectators through a series of moistening movements to achieve the ‘seven waves of wetness’. The Wetness began as a 7-minute show by Rose KB in partnership with Brand X while in residency at the Ace Hotel Sydney. Now, swollen to its full saturation with the addition of director Mish Endersbee and visual artist Jack Caddy, it has truly become a triumphant tide and is definitely worth dampening on a Friday night yourself.
Participants are greeted in a nondescript foyer in one of the Pier St heritage buildings by an alarmingly aproned acolyte offering a cup of water and a small fountain to begin the journey into wetness. Then, you flow through to a dimly lit hallway, are offered another chance to wash your hands and are given a small spray bottle to mist yourself as you wait before a watery altar, crowned with a small TV showing undulating waves. You are left for a spell to sit on small cushions in soft pools of light and listen to a soundscape of gentle waves while glancing self-consciously at your fellow aquanauts until Caddy ushers a closed set of kiddy-pool clamshells into the room. After the TV prompts you to ‘mist to summon the Wet One’ (cue feverish firing of misters), Rose KB emerges, looking for all intents and purposes like a modern Venus, and the show begins.
For the next hour, we were wrapped in the watery womb of wetness - encouraged to imbibe wetness, move through wetness, acknowledge the wetness of others, and to celebrate the wetness in ourselves. It also heavily references the wetter locations of Western Australia, our beautiful bubbling Boorloo - from the Derbal Yerrigan to Beatty Park. These little flecks in the foam of KB’s comedy felt like drips of inclusivity and private jokes just for us.
The workshop is flawless - like a tumbled stone from the bottom of a riverbed. It is in no way polished or perfect, the sacred succour is doled out to waiting mouths from simple plastic water bottles, but it is stunning. The commitment from KB and her aquatic acolytes is unwavering - soft spa voices that give way to the charismatic call to worship of a cult leader draw you in and do not let go. By the end of the waterlogged workshop on the night I attended, no member of the congregation could resist the soggy siren, eventually, all giving in to the gushing gloop and dancing, dripping, in unison to celebrate the wetness in one another. It is pitched perfectly between comedy and serious mindful acknowledgement of the power of water in our lives.
The Wetness is truly a highlight of the Summer Nights season this year. I strongly suggest that you suspend your suspicions and sup at this salubrious stream. I walked away humid and happy, overflowing with joy at achieving the 7 waves of wetness. Indulge yourself to an evening at The Wetness Centre, and see if you can find the wetness for yourself.
Reviewer Note: Tickets for this review were provided by the theatre company.
Komentar