Unsustainable Behaviour

by Lingua Franca

supported by the Regional Arts Fund and Local Stages - Nov 2015

 

Created by Alison Plevey & Adam Deusien

and the company

Directed by Adam Deusien

Lighting Design by Becky Russell

 Designer - Annemarie Dalziel

Sound Designer - Aaron Hopper

 

 

Performed by 

Alison Plevey,  Joseph Simons, Polly Sara and Jordan Wong

 

 

 

 

Unsustainable Behaviour is an interrogation of the human quest to progress. Motivated by the documentary Surviving Progress, directed by Martin Scorsese, and the book A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright, the work aims to investigate and destabilise the idea of growth as the default human aspiration, by using the performing body pushed to its limits as a symbol for how humanity is exceeding the limits of a sustainable civilization. We have wanted to question the wider concept of  ‘progress’, its use as propaganda and question the culture of economic rationalism and aspiration that dominates our everyday Australian ideologies. The work interrogates our ideas of progress as defined and qualified in terms of how big/how fast/how much we can make and how soon we can have it. It asks whether this short sighted focus only on the ‘now’ abandons the needs of our future and reveal skewed perceptions of progress that lead to an excess of our basic needs for survival. 

 

The first development period in Dec 2014 culminated in a 40 min showing to over 50 other artists and general public. In Nov 2015 the work will be fully developed for a short season at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre in Bathurst.

 

Then show then had a full rehearsal period, opening for a short season at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre in November 2015.

 

The project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports sustainable cultural development in regional, rural and remote Australia to give artists and communities better access to opportunities to practice and experience the arts.