From a bar fight to a car chase and dingo attack, audience members are transported right to the middle of the set of a 1970s Aussie action movie in Stunt Double. The exciting, immersive theatre experience makes its mark on the Canberra Theatre Centre stage on 14-16 March.

Created by The Farm, a contemporary dance theatre company that aims to push the boundaries of what contemporary performance is and where it can be seen. Inspired by power, fame and the exploitation of the stunt industry, this fast-paced, action-filled comedy also encourages the viewers to reflect on social issues.

“You’re laughing, you’re laughing and then you’re starting to go ‘Oh this isn’t something I should be laughing at. You’re disarming people through humour and through this intense action and physicality and then we gut punch them with what is really happening,” says Gavin Webber, co-artistic director of The Farm.

The play takes the audience through the process of filming an Australian New Wave action film, or Ozploitation film- think Mad Max or Wake in Fright. The Ozploitation films shot in the ‘70s and ‘80s were violent, raw, unpredictable and full of stunts, Webber says it was a time when filmmakers had newfound freedom after censorship was reviewed.

“Before that, it had always been very uptight British cinema that had a lot of restrictions about what it could show- no sex, no gore and then suddenly it all got released and all this money came into Australian cinema,” he says. “Cinema in Australia just suddenly exploded but it was all these B-grade, horror and car stunt films that started blossoming in that period.”

Webber says it wasn’t just an important time for Australian cinema, it was also an important time for Australian politics, there was change in the air.

“Gough [Whitlam] was about to be fired, so this period of politics in Australia we’re also fascinated with because it felt like change was happening. There was societal change, women’s rights all this stuff was happening but then look at us 50 years later and you can question what really changed sometimes, was it enough or are we going backward?”

In an industry wrought with fame obsession and personal glorification, what is the place for the person who does the hard work that someone else will take credit for? Stunt Double pulls back the veil and shoves the stunt person in the spotlight.

“The stunt people are the ones who put their bodies on the line for the glory and the glory goes to the actor. The stunt person is the one often who’s getting injured, whose life is even at risk, so we found that a fascinating thing to start with in terms of how that inequality happens”

There is a wide range of diversity amongst The Farm team from Webber, from a middle-aged white man to a young First Nations Woman. Each brings different perspectives and experiences with privilege and power, using diversity as their strength they wanted to express these experiences in one cohesive piece.

“We know that the structure of filming, the way that film is set up is inherently hierarchical and has all this power and privilege involved in it, all these things mixed together came to Stunt Double,” says Webber.

Like in the performing arts, where dancers seem to be at the bottom of the pay scale, so too are the stunt performers, says Webber. Working with stunt doubles Marco Sinigaglia and Carly Rees, they connected over this common bond.

“It has this unique personal perspective from the industry embedded in the heart of it. It is that great thing where something that is so personal and specific becomes very universal; anyone who’s ever felt overlooked or unseen.”

Even the actors that the stunt doubles are taking the risks for can believe that they were the ones who did the risky moves once their faces are edited onto the footage.

“Even when Tom Cruise does it, there is a stunt person who’s done it probably 50 times before he gets in and does it. The actor will do a version of it because they need the in and out of the movement, so they’ve done a version of it but then the stunt person will be the one who does the version where they get slammed into the walls. That actor has physically done a version of it so when they watch it, they can believe it’s them.”

Some audience members are invited to be part of the set, literally, each performance they invite 20 members to volunteer to take part on stage for the duration of the show.

“We’ve done a lot of work with audience interaction, we’re always a bit fascinated with taking that further, it feels like an important aspect of the arts these days,” says Webber.

Webber says that the spontaneity of it is a beautiful thing, having audience members being able to see themselves on stage also connects back to their ethos of recognising the everyman.

Webber hopes the audience will take the time to reflect on our own lives and place in our culture.

“There’s so many people in our society that feel either like someone’s taken credit for my work or that in some way they’ve been overlooked, we want them to feel seen by this show that we’re recognising their work.”

In a fun collaboration, CTC and the National Film and Sound Archive will be presenting a short season of films that fit the Ozploitation bill in February and March.

Catch all the action in Stunt Double at Canberra Theatre Centre on 14-16 March; canberratheatrecentre.com.au

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