Even before This begins – indeed even before one enters the venue – there’s a slightly unsettling sense that the line between art and reality is blurred.

There are (strategically placed) empty booze bottles outside, and an argument amplified in the foyer. Is the extraordinarily slow-moving queue for the bar and, as I heard on opening night, for the one toilet, part of the experience?

I also heard that some patrons had difficultly finding the venue. Is that partly why the decommissioned Richmond power station was chosen as the venue for this RISING festival theatre experience?

Most unsettling of all was the person at the entrance seemingly sleeping rough. If the man I saw on opening night really was homeless, how did audience members feel about walking past him for an entertainment that costs around $60? For various reasons, a troubling thought.

This. Photo © Jeff Busby

One of many RISING festival shows COVID-cancelled in 2021, This is directed by David Woods, whose credentials include co-artistic director of Ridiculusmus theatre company. He gathered 19 writers with diverse backgrounds to create this large-scale theatre work, which begins in earnest...