Subliminal Massage
Created & Performed by Marcus McKenzie
Steps Gallery, Carlton
Melbourne Fringe, September 2019
Design: Marcus McKenzie & Chloe Greaves
Featuring: Irma Eljas
WINNER:
2020 Greenroom Awards, Contemporary & Experimental Performance - Performer
NOMINATED:
2019 Fringe Awards, Theatre - Best work
2020 Greenroom Awards, Contemporary & Experimental Performance - Production
“Imagine a cult leader with a taste for club life.” - Chelsea Hopper, MeMo Review
Part dystopian sci-fi and part self-help seminar, Subliminal Massage imagines a world almost devoid of touch and speech, in which human connection has transcended the physical and become a purely idealistic, theoretical concept. How might we connect in an time of heightened connectivity but seemingly epidemic disconnection?
Incorporating psychobabble, psychedelia, pseudoscience and pop-cultural detritus, McKenzie weaves his idiosyncratic brand of choreographic, frenetic, stream-of-consciousness prose-poem in the highly anticipated follow up to 2016's HYPERSPIRIT (Nominated - Best Show, Melbourne Fringe Awards).
“Solipsistic fibrosis indeed. A post (post?) human exploration/celebration/exhibition of the trash bag of western “culture”. Puns, portmanteaus, wellness, white cubes, black screens…This AI hasn’t been updated in a century and his database has festered. Glitched out, hilarious, touching, terrifying… Such a fully realised world… I would say see it but the final performance is tonight and is (deservedly) sold out.” - Across The Aisle
“transcendent…a peerless work of contemporary performance. McKenzie, perhaps, has limitations as a performer - but there is no evidence in this work - his depth of skill as an actor, singer, dancer, host, poet, is faultless… finding the seemingly implausible liminal spaces between charlatan self help gurus, mentalists, and fax machines. - Tobias Manderson-Galvin, Daily Review
"...masterful...The work is a serious achievement and its performance is at times virtuosic... McKenzie demands attention, here and in the future." - John Bailey, RealTime (on HYPERSPIRIT)
This project has been supported by The Arts Centre’s Small & Loud program and Mechanics Institute’s Artist Development program.
Photos & Video: Amelia J Dowd, 2019