They’ve Already Won
Image: Photo: Jack Toohey
They’ve Already Won, ‘A rigorous appraisal of our culture by two idiots at risk of overdosing on hyperbole’, is an experimental comedy, a performance piece that explores how humanity may have sealed its own fate and asks the question, ‘do you believe that we as humans have done a series of selfish and destructive acts upon each other and upon the environment that are irreversible?’
“We talk quite extremely online about mundane things in our life and tend to avoid talking about the things that really matter. You can really care about the sea levels rising but you can also spend half an hour talking about an amazing muffin on the internet,” elaborated actor and playwright Harriet Gillies. “They’ve Already Won shows how a generation that’s grown up around social media charts language, and looks at the failure of language in contemporary society due to the rise of hyperbolic language in social media.”
“One of the big challenges of the piece is that we didn’t want to send a negative message. It’s about celebrating and embracing the darker things that are happening in the world and we try to sit in that contradiction. Pierce Wilcox [writer, director and performer] and I find it really dark and engrossing sitting in that paradox. There’s a clashing of different styles and different ideas, a clashing that’s quite dirty, hot and messy.”
“I first had the idea for this show when I was travelling through Cambodia, talking with a local about businesses and how in Cambodia a lot of big business is owned by the Chinese and Thai, their neighbours. We were talking about how to fix that and he said: ‘It’s too late, they’ve already won’. The whole piece is about exploring these things that have happened in the world that are now so big, that have snowballed in size that it feels like now there’s no way back”, explained Gillies. (MS)
Dec 8–20, various show times. Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $25-$30. Tickets & info: belvoir.com.au/events/theyve-already-won/
BY MEL SOMERVILLE
