Reviewed by Nadia Free­man

U R Here is an invi­ta­tion to take things a lit­tle less seri­ous­ly, to for­get about the busi­ness of adult­hood and be play­ful. Set away from the day-to-day rhythm of urban liv­ing. Bar­bar­ian Pro­duc­tions draws us out to Mar­tin Luck­ie Park in Berham­pore.

On arrival, my group is wel­comed by 80’s fit­ness instruc­tors who help us lim­ber up and pre­pare our minds for the chal­lenge ahead. We are then giv­en cards that will become our pass­ports for the rest of the per­for­mance.

What comes next is a delight­ful escape from con­ven­tion. Our team are required to com­plete a series of activ­i­ties while biz­zaro-world tele­tub­by-like crea­tures roam around shar­ing mean­ing­less insight. With each activ­i­ty, we gain super­pow­ers includ­ing ‘the abil­i­ty to care deeply about oth­ers’ or affir­ma­tions such as ‘Mau­ria te Pono’.

Once we have met the chal­lenges, we are deemed qual­i­fied to move on to the next stage, where we meet a gate­keep­er who asks for our leader. A quick con­fer­ence between mem­bers of the group and I am dubbed leader by default as no one else wants the role. As ‘leader’ I have to answer a series of ques­tions that will deter­mine where the gate­keep­ers directs us.

Wan­der­ing across wide green fields we meet a team of sci­en­tists mon­i­tor­ing the activ­i­ty of an uniden­ti­fied being they call ‘it’. What is it? you may ask, well, that is for you to find out.

U R Here leaves you won­der­ing where exact­ly you are. Per­haps Welling­ton, but per­haps some­where else? Maybe exact­ly where you need to be? It feels like a nice escape from real­i­ty as you stum­ble across cos­tumed musi­cians in the woods or a worm with answers to all things.

There is a res­onat­ing theme here about change, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly cohe­sion as you make your way from one area to anoth­er. I think U R Here is an explo­ration of a vil­lage full of var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties that do not nec­es­sar­i­ly inter­re­late with each oth­er but are part of the same world nonethe­less.

I rec­om­mend this as a fun day out with friends, espe­cial­ly the kids. Make sure to wear clothes you don’t mind get­ting a lit­tle messy and shoes to walk through fields. I also rec­om­mend inform­ing peo­ple on arrival if you have mobil­i­ty needs due to the fair amount of walk­ing.