En Route

Overview

Twenty-four hours beforehand I received a text message which set the tone for this unusual performance: "You are now En Route. With this text your journey begins."

This participatory show is all about discovering your stomping ground, not in a group or with a partner but on your own. You are texted a CBD location. Once there you are handed an MP3 player and given selective instructions, just enough to get you started. Then you follow the path, meandering down alleyways, your head filled with philosphical musings on the art of seeing interspersed with locally produced tunes. More text messages arrive with further directions, ocassional markings on the ground show you are on the right track and onlookers keep an unobtrusive watch out for you.

Some of the places I travelled were familiar to me as they will be to many but I delighted in the discoveries; staircases which I never knew led to familiar haunts, doorways and corridors which if followed through, led to parallel streets and a tall building I visit often but was unaware offered panoramic views of the CBD. This was my city but not exactly as I knew it.

Looking around and taking in your surroundings is a big part of the experience but I was also expected to do such things as walk into a busy shop, open a box and pull out an envelope, hold up my hand in the street as a signal, say a word aloud to the city and more. I must admit, some of it made me feel slightly uncomfortable but I went with it and there was something amusing about letting go and trusting in this finely-tuned process.

Started by the Melbourne collective One Step At A Time Like This, En Route outgrew Australia to take on such cities as Chicago, London, Seoul and Edinburgh, winning a string of awards at prestigious internatonal festivals along the way. It's obvious to see how the concept can translate to Auckland as easily as it did to these other international cities. For the sceptics it demonstrates the beauty and uniqueness hidden amongst the drab office blocks of the CBD and for those who already love this city, it just gives them more reason to do so.