Within & Without

Overview

Anyone who got a good look, or play, with last year's Tiny Stadiums crowd-sourced cardboard model of Erskineville would remember strange slides and vacuum-rentals dotted around an otherwise fastidious model of the suburb. It was easy to imagine doing even more with such a strong, simple idea. At Within & Without, a combination of Australian and Filipino artists are putting together something similar for the Blacktown Performing Arts Centre, under the umbrella of the Performance Space.

The nucleus of both is a big cardboard model of the city of Manila. Cut out of cardboard, the city serves as a novelty you can visit at the Arts Centre. But it's also the central set for a multi-channel sound and shadow-puppet show put on by Philippines theatre group the Anino Shadowplay Collective and locals Valerie Berry, Deborah Pollard and  Paschal Daantos Berry. The same group collaborated for last year's nicely-reviewed Folding Wife at the Carriageworks. Seeing the model is free, the show is ticketed. This year they tell an urban story in an increasingly urbanised world. In telling the story of a metropolis like Manilla, Within & Without searches to be a story about all cities. Even our own.