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Autogeddon
In 1995 NoFit State left the tent to produce a huge event in a warehouse. It was a multimedia event, based on Heathcote Williams' lyrical rant against car culture, and incorporating all sorts of local talent in music, dance, sculpture, design, rigging, acting and circus.
This was my review (I joined the crew too late to perform, and just did Front of House every night):
Autogeddon
- The Final Reckoning
On entering the space the audience were left free to wander and explore the different displays, paintings and sculptures, based on cut-up cars, car parts and street furniture, incorporated into the sets and stages scattered around the cavernous room. The entrance of aliens through a rolling shutter, silhouetted in blazing white light and smoke, signalled the start of the performance. From their vantage points of trapezes and ropes, the aliens watched and commented on the folly of humans.
The audience's attention was drawn to a main stage, where the sexy and hypnotic version of cars that advertising offers was contrasted with the terrifying statistics and 'acceptable losses' that are the price we pay for our obsession ("Cars are so convenient" - "My journey is important, yours isn't").
The poem itself is a grim text, with a few uneasy laughs, but the show expanded the themes, employing video, slides, circus skills, rapping, dance and humour, while keeping the audience alertly scanning the space, editing their own experience, a bewildering sensation like being at a festival. Attention might be drawn to specific areas by sound and light, but there was always a feeling that you might be missing something elsewhere. A light touch was to have people in traffic-cone costumes amongst the audience, steering and amusing them, directing their attention.
The
second half was even stronger, starting with a carnival percussion session
played on car parts. The tv announcers on a side stage (and on the tv screens)
continued hitting us with terrifying facts and figures about petrol by-products,
road deaths and multinational economics; the aliens scornfully displayed
wonderful aerial skills, while below, the humans rioted (Splott State somersaulting
over a car on the main stage in a really exciting sequence). The final image,
two cars in a head-to-head crash which
burst into flame surrounded by fireworks, left a stunning after image.
Such an ambitious project, incorporating so many diverse elements, is a very big step away from touring a small circus/theatre show. NoFit State have finally moved on from a show aimed at families (with a plot and storyline), and attempted something quite different: an impressionistic and impassioned piece “from the heart.” It was aimed at a different kind of audience, willing to learn a new way of participating at an event. NFSC continue to challenge and amuse and make people think, while offering a terrific night out (with late bar ...for those not driving home).
© Toby Philpott 1995 first published in Kaskade Oct-Nov 1995 Issue 16 Volume 1