C-Alto, Venue 40 – 5 to 30th August (not 17th, 18th, 24th and 25th), Multiple
times throughout the day
Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
4****
What is True? Can we trust? Is this real? Questions that both thrill and terrify me. Truthmachine is a 30 minute experience where people are taken into a room and sat at a table to find the truth as one member is hooked up to a polygraph test.
Counterpilot is an Australian theatre company known for their immersive and interactive shows. Truthmachine has won awards at the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringes, and I can see why.
This isn’t a welcoming experience, its cold and clinical, there’s very little in the way of formalities. The room is dark, the table is full with headphones voting devices and ambient lights. This is where I’m really impressed with Truthmachine, the atmosphere felt so intentional, everything worked together to put the audience into an uneasy state where it becomes hard to find what is real and what is performance.
In our slot we were a group of 7, we sat down at the table and put our headphones on. It was clear to see on the expressions of the others that they felt uneasy answering questions, scared that they were going to be caught out on a lie. Some questions were simple like, ‘do you floss’, others were incredibly personal and taboo. The person connected up to the polygraph was an American man who attended with his father and son. I have to admit I found this so entertaining, some of the questions were something I would not want to answer in front of my family.
As a self proclaimed post-modernist myself, I found this show to be exciting and rich in what it’s trying to achieve. It brings forth many questions, is this performance even real, were my team of 7 real, were they even Australian? All of it felt very contained, which
with all the technical elements makes sense, I just wish it went further. I’m unsure if this show has always been 30 minutes in length, but I would be keen to be in the room longer, maybe I would feel different if I knew the person hooked up to the test.