While the Wells Group’s pro-unem­ploy­ment install­a­tion piece con­tin­ues to anger and bewilder ordin­ary, hard­work­ing Kiwis, artist­ic mas­ter­mind Tao Wells con­tin­ues to, er, work.

In addi­tion to the Let­ting Space install­a­tion, Wells is present­ing two per­form­ances of his theatre show Inu­it Time, once described as “an insult to the fun­da­ment­als of theatre”. The first per­form­ance was last night, and I showed up at Fred’s per­form­ance ven­ue, not entirely sure what to expect.

For Inu­it Time, Wells has asked a num­ber of people to write down their con­ver­sa­tions, includ­ing thoughts. He’s then edited the tran­scripts, reorder­ing them in a way that he feels makes sense.

The writers were present on the night and had a copy of the newly pro­duced script, which was also pro­jec­ted up on a screen. The writers then had the option of read­ing out their lines… or not.

Now, this might all sound a bit wanky, but it man­aged to be a really enjoy­able even­ing. While the dia­logue was ordin­ary, the script was smart and enter­tain­ing, and the per­form­ances (or lack of) worked will with the space.

The play ended with a remix of the script, with Wells jump­ing around the script, the act­ors read­ing what was in front of them like those crazy South Amer­ic­an soap oper­as where the act­ors are fed lines via earpiece, quickly pick­ing up the tone of the freshly cre­ated scenes.

And when the writer/actors tired, audi­ence mem­bers jumped in (one of whom may have been me). The even­ing ended with Wells col­lapsing on the floor, declar­ing, “You’ve beaten me!” Ha!

It was a curi­ous, enter­tain­ing and fun even­ing. The second per­form­ance is on Labour Day Monday and Wells reck­ons it’ll be even cra­zi­er. If you seek a the­at­ric­al adven­ture, don’t miss it.

Inu­it Time
Fred’s – 46 Fre­d­er­ick Street, Te Aro
7.00pm
$5