Fight Night

Is there a more frustrating company than Ontroerend Goed? The rule-bending Belgians—performing here alongside Australia’s The Border Project—are capable of theatrical brilliance, redefining the genre and extracting torrents of self-examination and afterthought as they did with 2009’s extraordinary one-on-one show, Internal. On other occasions, though, they fall disappointingly short with cod psychological, substance-lite efforts such as 2011’s examination of crowd behaviour, Audience.

So where does this year’s audience-driven deconstruction of the electoral system, Fight Night, lie? Slap-bang in the middle, somewhat predictably.

It’s got all the OG trademarks: high production values, handsomely turned-out cast, audience involvement; and as five “candidates” stride onstage sporting boxing gowns to begin the idiological pugilism (the combat metaphor runs throughout the show), expectations are set high.

It’s a popularity contest, really, based on the little we know about our quintet of eager contenders and we vote (via a hand-held keypad) for our favourite. Who do we most like the look of? Whose views align to ours? Whose words do we find most offensive? Only one can win.

Fight Night certainly holds our attention as our affable host/ringleader (resembling a young George Galloway in Harris Tweed) prompts, cajoles and exposes the fallibilities of personality-based electioneering: horse-trading, coalescing, back-biting, self-aggrandising. The system’s broke, and we all know it. But so what?

It’s hardly revelatory, in truth, as those of us used to gobbling up our meagre sliver of democracy will attest, but Fight Night is nonetheless a further reminder of the art and artifice of the election game.