Adam Paolozza’s Last Landscape opened at Buddies in Bad Times on Tuesday night. It’s an experimental piece about environmental collapse. It’s not exactly a “play”. There are no words. What there are are puppets, movement and sound.
The premise is that a group of workers in a future time “devoid of nature” enter an empty space and begin to create what Nature might have been. There are trees and grass and birds and animals. Over the hour and a half or so the piece lasts the landscapes become more “fantastic”. We start with a woman walking her dog in a park and end up with megafauna in a primeval forest. Then the workers remove all the props and scenery and we are back with an empty stage.
It’s all rather beautiful, a bit mesmerising and sometimes quite funny. The actors manage to “become” elements of the landscape; whether its as trees or a very convincing gaggle of squawking seagulls dropping seagull shit on a yappy dog or the truly wonderful giant sloth (Graeme Black-Robinson) and baby sloth (Cielia Scala) in the final tableau. It raises all kinds of uncomfortable thoughts about what Nature is and how we relate to it; past, present and future.
The puppet designs and the set elements are very clever; all repurposeable once the show is done. The lighting (Andre du Toit) is atmospheric and the sound; conceived and performed by SlowPitchSound is rhythmic, sometimes lyrical, occasionally disturbing but, mercifully, not overwhelmingly loud. But the final credit has to go to Paolozza and his team of performers; Nada Abusaleh, Nicolas Eddie, Gibum Dante Lim, Annie Luján, Kari Pederson and himself for bringing the concept to life so effectively.
Last Landscape is a Bad New Days Production in conjunction with Common Boots Theatre and it continues at Buddies in Bad Times until January 26th.
Photo credit: Fran Chudnoff
operaramblings 
The idea of recreating nature in a time of collapse is such a powerful concept. It seems like a creative way to get us thinking about the roles we play in shaping the environment.