Theatre / The Art of Disruption, Rebus Theatre. At ACT Hub, Kingston, until June 1. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

This production by Rebus Theatre for Social Change is the third in its Flair series, which offers theatre devised by disabled actors and those living with mental health challenges.

It began with the sounds of Anitra’s Dance from Grieg’s Peer Gynt wafting around the walls of the ACT  Hub, followed by a touch of Greensleeves, as the two figures of Lucy Raffaele and Simone Bartram, dressed in gowns by Miranda Young, communed with the trees of the forest until suddenly assaulted by a ferocious two-headed dragon (Nicki Maher and Leanne Shutt).

But just as suddenly, co-director (with Melissa Gryglewski ) Sammy Moynihan appears on the scene to shout “Cut!” It’s a rehearsal, it turns out.

The Art of Disruption, Rebus says, is a show in which truth meets imagination, so there is more than just one play-within-a-play.

Just as suddenly, we switch to a work-a-day setting, the offices of a large corporation, Mega Corp, charged with providing services and answering to a ferocious Lady Mayor played onscreen by Janet Preston.

Centre stage is Roger (Josh Rose) the long-suffering CEO, denounced by his wife and the Lady Mayor as nothing but a “man-baby”.

Roger wants to stage a play for the townsfolk called “Window on the Community”. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, traffic jams, for one thing and the plumbing for another, as Kimberly Adams and the staff at Mega Corp, grapple with their passionate ideas for drama.

There’s also a vocal character, Jade (Shutt) who’s having trouble with the welfare department.

As all the characters grapple with modern-day problems they decide, in sympathy with him, that a play called “Window on Roger” might be nearer the mark, as the buck stops with him.

The play is strangely surrealistic, even as it allows the different players to air their opinions on the increasing pressure to do everything online and the crass commercialism of modern society.

Their gripes and sharp observations, captioned on video, keep the audience laughing as the idea emerges that community and nature are what really matter. And Lisa, it turns out, has an orangutan sanctuary so knows what a good example those fellow-creatures set to humans.

The show must go on, and against the odds, Roger’s play eventually takes the stage in a tableau where creatures of the forest, including the dragon, merge with the humans.

Right on cue, director Sammy appears again and is surprised to find that the actors have done perfectly well without him, successfully practising the art of disruption to explore their their ideas and fears about society.