Tantrum Theatre’s production, directed by Brendan O’Connell, of Newcastle playwright Carl Caulfield’s play 2039 is an exploration of a post-apocalyptic society that mirrors our own. The play explores reality, construct and control. What has been constructed to maintain the status quo?

In 2039, there has been a world wide nuclear war and much of the planet is not safe for human habitation.  The fictional world of 2039 is set in a global society called Bettaville. Bettaville is comprised of four ‘Zones’ in which all people live.  The story goes that after the war, Bettaville citizens came to a consensus about the structure of a new society. Everyone consents to how Bettaville is run by the Church of Kronos. The Church controls society through a centralised intelligence system. Subversion is not permitted. Surveillance ensures all the citizens of Bettaville remain under the watchful, paternal control of the Church of Kronos.

Zone 1 is where everyone wants to live, where you can still breathe the air, where the Bettaville rich and famous party their hearts out and everyone is beautiful. Zone 2 is where Gretchen, the central character, lives. Tantrum Theatre’s Rachel Jackett plays a likable, brave Gretchen who questions the world. Grechen dreams of being a beautiful celebrity in Zone 1. Zones 3 and 4 are unfortunate places to be, supposedly full of bad people, riddled with disease.

Tantrum Theatre’s production utilises a minimalist set. Surveillance is explored with cameras filming the production, feeding the real time footage to television sets stacked on either side of the stage and projecting footage of the actors onto a screen above the stage throughout the production. 

I think this production overall needed to push beyond being entertainment. I wanted to be engaged by a challenging, subversive production, seeking to shine a light on our own society. Our society has become ever more influenced by the media and technology. Celebrities have become god-like and the surveillance of our private lives continues to increase as the line between public and private wavers.

The concepts explored of 2039 are similar to George Orwell’s 1984 and the Matrix Trilogy. These popular stories are critical of society’s power structures: state, government, corporate and religious. Kronos, the church/government structure controlling Bettaville, is a strong, subversive concept. I wanted to be confronted by an engaging critique of state and religion, of privilege, fame and the media’s role in society.

This production did not confront me. I was entertained… But I left the theatre wishing I had been pushed out of my comfort zone. Instead, I’m thinking do we know what subversive is? Do we crave to shake the Status Quo? Or are we too numbed by fluoride and doomsday proclamations. Are we so brainwashed by spineless leaders with corporate strings and vampire films that we have forgotten how to aspire to change the world?

Play by Newcastle Playwright, Carl Caulfield. 

Review by Fern York for Culturehunter.org