WESTERN SOCIETY - GOB SQUAD - LONDON AUGUST 2015

Western Society is a 3 minute youtube home video of an American family get-together
re-imagined movement by movement into an immersive hour-and-three-quarters performance by arts collective Gob Squad. Through detailed instructions delivered via headphones, randomly selected audience members take on the roles of the family members recreating the festive cake eating, karaoke party. The results are performed live on stage, interjected with Gob Squad cameos and directorial commentary, with a simultaneously projected live-feed from the video capturing the staged reinterpretation.

 

With a fascination and talent for using video technology in their performances,
Gob Squad have been devising and making boundary-warping work for the last twenty years. They take both a macro and micro look at 21st century civilisation, reconstructing, projecting and elevating identities whilst picking apart societal constructs.

 

Western Society expertly shines the light back on immersive theatre/participatory performance art and not just society. It makes us aware of what it is to be participating and what it is to be witnessing. Gob Squad even go as far to emphasise the divide and its collusive nature through the construction of a decadent VIP area for participants to pamper themselves in between their scenes.

 

Although you have just witnessed the spectacle of a sophisticated production, you are left with an unfettered emotional tie with each one of the audience members who filled the shoes of the unknown family. From within the tight constructs laid out for each performer by Gob Squad, a shard of humanity breaks through overshadowing the perfomative identities being explored.