The Bluebird Mechanicals

Renowned international theatre company, Too Close To The Sun, will present The Bluebird Mechanicals, a powerful work about climate change, at Metro Arts, Sept 7 - 16.

Too Close To The Sun comprises husband and wife team, Talya Rubin (Performer/Writer) and Nick James (Director), with The Bluebird Mechanicals described as a "visionary new solo work about Chekhov, climate change and the end of the world". An Australia/Canada co-production, the disquieting new solo work is about our collective loss of feeling on the cusp of climate change. 

The work weaves seemingly disparate elements together - Kostya's ghost in the aftermath of Chekhov's The Seagull; the final fiery flight of the Hindenburg; and the omniscience of birds. The line between the real and the imagined is blurred as the experience unfolds inside a natural history museum diorama playing space. There's intricate, immersive visual and sound design, with props such as taxidermy animals, wind-up toys and live-filmed miniature worlds. 

Says Director Nick James, "In Chekhov's The Seagull, the rejected artist presents a play about extinction that is dismissed. Our work is picking up this relic of the imagination and linking it to the present-day reality of climate change."

Performer/Writer Talya Rubin is a national Canadian poetry award-winner and while in Brisbane will also be presenting her writing at the Queensland Poetry Festival. Previously, Too Close To The Sun has toured and presented work in Australia, with The Age saying of a previous piece, "This is intensely moving theatre, and for all the bleakness, beautiful. Rubin makes the unbearable seem bearable. ...I left feeling stricken but radiant."

There will be a free artist talk at 9pm on Sept 14.

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By Vicki Englund

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