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