MORE interactive theatre show than traditional exhibition, the success of The Humble Market depends as much on its visitors as it does on what lies in the galleries.
Embrace the experience and you just might discover something about yourself, go in po-faced and it’ll be an uncomfortably embarrassing ordeal.
Created by theatre company Zecura Ura and artists Persis-Jade Maravala, Alastair Ellbeck, Jorge Lopes Ramos and James Bailey, it is based on the premise that by 2010 the world will be more Brazilian.
Visitors are taken through a series of situations that will prepare them for this eventuality.
They try on a carnival headdresses, take a virtual ride in a taxi, watch the stars on Philosopher’s Hill and have a conversation of sorts with a silky-voiced automated telephone system.
All the while, they are invited to answer questions about life and, most uncomfortably when you’re lying in a dark room with total strangers, death.
The point of all this is never made entirely clear but, to quote from a report handed out after you complete the tour, perhaps if you’ve had an enlightening, or simply entertaining, experience then “none of this matters”.
And there’s nice attention to detail – a game of Trivial Pursuit in a tent you are invited to crawl through, a miniature statue of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer on the taxi dashboard, insulting quips from prying voice on the public telephone.
The Humble Market may not be for the excruciatingly shy but you don’t have to be an extrovert to get something out of it.
Laura Davis
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