The Vehicle Failed to Stop – Version 1.0

Overview

Originally commissioned and devised as part of STC’s Rough Draft program in 2012, The Vehicle Failed to Stop premiered last week at Carriageworks as part of the 2013 Artistic Program there. A multimedia firestorm of live video, live music, ululation and machismo, this combination of verbatim and physical theatre (and one hell of an exploding car designed by Dillon MacEwan) is exhilarating and smart.

The work uses original texts from hearings and firsthand accounts of the 2007 controversy surrounding the deaths of two Iraqi women, Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal, who were killed by employees of Unity Resources Group, an Australian-owned private security company that still operates in Iraq.

Version 1.0 have luxuriated in the vastness of the Carriageworks cavern, even opening up a backstage area, which elevates the space to an industrial scale, fitting for a story about unaccountable mercenaries. Video artist Sean Bacon has set three screens in the space: one behind the car, which shows scenes from a moving vehicle through Fallujah streets; a small thin screen on high displaying the source of the various texts and a whopper of a screen on the opposite side.

As the piece begins, we peer down the length of the stage at performer Irving Gregory standing frozen in military fatigues. A toy soldier in a painting, he ever so gradually transforms into a living breathing body. With physical and vocal exactness, Gregory executes a perfect crescendo. It’s not clear when he got louder or closer but suddenly he’s down stage centre and it is mesmerising.

In the sequences that follow, Gregory is joined by performers Olivia Stambouliah and Jane Phegan, who play pumped-up soldiers as well as Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal. Stambouliah and Phegan are finely attuned to each other and their macho, air-punching sequences on top of the car to composer Paul Prestipino's aggressive music are concentrated and tight. The three performers’ physical control and sense of ensemble keeps the work at a riveting level of storytelling, which is no mean feat given the breadth of the subject matter and size of the space.

Version 1.0’s combination of so many elements is impressive and there’s an attractive open-endedness that attends this kind of collaborative work. Rather than presenting one, grand master’s vision, The Vehicle Failed to Stop pays witness to some important history, and you should too.

Image by Zan Wembley.