A History of Everything – Sydney Theatre Company and Ontroerend Goed

Overview

A History of Everything: They mean it literally.

This co-production between young Belgians Ontroerend Goed (The Smile Off Your Face, Once And For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen) and the STC's Residents takes you on a careening ride through the history of human society, organic life, tectonic shifts and the birth and expansion of the universe. EVERYTHING.

It all starts today, whatever today is on the day you see the show. (Yes, A History of Everything is a bit rewritten each night. Naturally. That's what happens with history.) On our night in the world, the search continued for survivors from the Costa Concordia and Sydneysiders complained about the closure of the Harbour Bridge, among other things. These events are recounted by the seven-strong ensemble, well armed with props, as they move across a stage marked with a map of the Earth. As the counter behind them starts ticking backwards in allotments of days, then months, then years, then decades, centuries, millennia, a hundred millennia, so does their narration.

It's somehow both more and less complex than it sounds. There's no real challenge here to the accepted narratives of history or highfalutin claims to a formal breakthrough in the performing arts. This is the theatre of the Wikipedia generation — but they've digested all those articles more thoroughly than most. It's fast, kinetic but incredibly thoughtful. It requires feats of precision and grace from the cast (as well as director Alexander Devriendt and scenographer Sophie De Somere) to not to get tangled up in their transcontinental web. There's some beautiful subtlety and wit to visual references that whizz by as props are used and reused without spotlight, and although the use of music can be unsubtly manipulative, you can't fault their tastes in fine indie instrumental pop. This is a team that's impressive, inventive and fuelled by the fire they find in each other, and what they have to share with the audience is above all a lot of fun.

As it skips through time, A History of Everything creates an interesting conversation between the crusades of the past and those of the present, avoiding putting humanity on the path to infinite progress. And as 200,000 years go by and homo sapiens devolve into primates, an asteroid brings back the dinosaurs, and a fish loses its eyes and mouth to become plankton and then protozoa, you let go of the primacy of humankind. The big bang, when it comes, draws elemental clouds back into blackness.

The effect is like standing on a rooftop looking up at the stars: You feel so small. You feel overwhelmed. You feel comforted.