‘High Octane’: A Propulsive Work About The Physical Cost Of Success

You might not realise as you enter the Campbelltown Arts Centre for High Octane that you’re walking across one of the stages for the show. The latest work from acclaimed choreographer Emma Harrison begins with the sights, sounds and smells of burning rubber as a car tears into the Centre’s courtyard, setting your adrenaline into overdrive before you step into the theatre.

What follows in the choreographed part of High Octane is a relentlessly mobile piece of work that’s all about wanting more. Harrison is joined on stage by fellow performers Emma Riches and Frances Orlina in a work that explores an attempt to transcend the social order rooted in the early 2000s. In that attempt, the three performers literally seem to push themselves to the limit, highlighting the human cost that comes with such an insurmountable task.

The mission statement of High Octane comes early when Orlina walks across the stage on helmets with the assistance of Harrison and Riches rearranging them while talking about her desire to be famous, before quite literally standing on the helmeted heads of her fellow performers.

It’s an evocative image that speaks to that nebulous desire for ‘success’ and ‘making it’ that was uber-popular in the 2000s at the birth of modern internet culture. Being the time period that Harrison grew up in, the show speaks to the desire to attain that level of success no matter the cost to those around you, be they strangers or friends, that was particularly prevalent in that era and has come back into fashion today.

High Octane’s intense physicality paints this picture most clearly. Though the show does occasionally have its performers utilise speech, a majority of the storytelling comes through the show’s choreography. Harrison, Riches and Orlina exert themselves in a truly astounding way throughout the show, and create a number of staggering images in conjunction with fantastic lighting and use of smoke machines.

The show’s relationship to physicality is precisely the point. It’s basically non-stop, and the sense that these characters are striving for something greater than their present circumstances is palpable. High Octane moves at a million miles a minute, constantly evoking powerful imagery and powerful ideas. It’s often pretty funny, too – the journey that the show takes you on often feels pointedly satirical amidst the genuinely stunning feats of physicality on display.

The unrelentingly rapid pace makes High Octane an entertaining show with plenty to say; in fact, it certainly doesn’t mind if you’re left in the dirt as it moves at breakneck speed. But that’s a feature of the show, not a bug, given the stated intent of its characters to ascend to fame and fortune no matter the cost. High Octane revs in a way that’s sure to be unlike any show you’ve seen, and is well worth the trip to Campbelltown to witness a genuinely daring, exhilarating ride of a show.

High Octane is playing at Campbelltown Arts Centre until Saturday March 29th.