Theatre / “Chemical ReACTion,” Rebus Theatre at Questacon, May 28. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

IN a bold extrapolation from its award-winning production at the Shine Dome last year, “What If Scientists Ruled The World?”, Canberra’s Rebus Theatre took the stage of the Japan Theatre at Questacon over the weekend for a rare, interactive theatre experience.

The purpose, co-creator and host Ali clinch explained, was to “have a crack at problems” in an informal way and “come together to talk”.

Originally commissioned by the Falling Walls Foundation in Berlin, this was not a chemistry-lab comedy show, but rather an exploration of interactions between scientists, their discoveries, the media and the general public or as Rebus says, “chains of events that cause a little bit of damage”.

On stage were a mix of professional actors and science communicators, steered by Clinch, who made sure the audience members were thoroughly involved.

Drs Fiona and Theo, played by real-life science communicators Johanna Hawes and Phil Dooley, took the stage, along with Linda Chen as the over-ambitious science journo, Joel Swadling as the mayor of a fictitious town, Robin Davidson as a disaffected community member and Dooley doubling as the populist  Bruce, CEO of the local company using “nastoids” in their mysterious product.

This was not theatre for the faint-hearted or the dull-witted so it was a pleasure to see how many engaged young people were in the audience to help the plot take off in a  “choose your own adventure” format.

Rebus’ modus operandi is to mix “forum theatre,” which directly engages the audience, and “playback theatre,” where after short scenes are staged, the audience intervenes then the actors revisit the scenario with some of the elements changed.

Yesterday the main scenario involved  20-minute sketch about the dilemmas of science communication.

Busy academic Dr Theo, oppressed by the need to keep up funding for his research grants, hands over news of a scientific paper to his media adviser/science communicator, who is then inveigled by the local science journalist into running a sensational expose of a possibly about a potentially toxic chemical which could impact on the wider community.

Switching to a town hall in regional “Petersville”, we meet  concerned citizens aroused by the news, the CEO of the local company that uses the substance and the venal local mayor grappling with what might very well be just a media beat-up, or something really dangerous. Who knows?

Clinch invited the audience to shout “stop” whenever a point was reached where a different path could be taken — delaying the deadline for a press release, for instance.

The rest of the evening saw Rebus’ versatile actors adapting to the new circumstances until a kind-of solution was reached, although one astute, primary-aged audience member in the front row wasn’t convinced.

Certainly, this style of theatre is not everybody’s cup of tea and some families who’d come along expecting to see a conventional play left.

But the bulk of the audience remained and got in, boots and all, shouting abuse at the mayor, alternately praising and heckling Bruce, and even stepping on stage to achieve solutions and make commentary on scientific responsibility, media sensationalism and weakness in decision-making.

Did it solve the problems of the world? Probably not, but this daring kind of theatre which Rebus has made its specialty proved a great deal more exciting than anything else I’d seen on the stage in quite a while.