The Well

Interactive theatre is like olives: people either love it or hate it, with no middle ground. The Well, a new production written and directed by Robert Reid, does its best to win people over to the interactive experience, with mixed results.

A comparison with Lost seems inevitable, since The Well starts with an interesting scientific premise (what would happen if the Earth fell out of its orbit?) and yet builds towards a kinder, stranger, more spiritual conclusion. It's certainly a fresh take on the apocalypse tale, and Reid does a good job of keeping his oddball plot hanging together.

The Well is performed by an ensemble of Monash University theatre students, and the unevenness of the group is probably the production's biggest problem. The cast, who manage to nail every permutation of hipster known to man, perform traditional scenes, but are also required to ad-lib with the audience and guide them around the room, so that the performance is observed from a variety of vantage points. Unfortunately, some of the actors don't quite sell the audience-interaction aspect of the work – their discomfort is as palpable as that of the most recalcitrant audience member's. Plus, in a space as small as La Mama, different vantage points are more or less moot – all the shuffling is perhaps unnecessary.

Still, if there is an apocalypse coming, the early-adopter hipsters will likely be the first to know. In that respect, The Well may well be onto something.