Here is the message you asked for … don’t tell anyone else 😉 was the most bizarre yet delightful show I have seen in a long time.
On a superficial level before anything else, the set is gorgeous and dreamy. Bunk beds with fairy lights, sheer curtains, and soft pink lighting; it’s really aesthetic. While I was sitting on the tiered seating, teenagers sat on the stage and on bunk beds amongst three bunk beds in centre stage, which held 7 sleeping girls. Slowly the each woke up in turn, either naturally or by each other, and the show began.
The girls sit metres away from one another, yet they are each within their own bubble. The screens of their computers are projected onto sheer screens in front of their bunks, displaying them watching K-Pop videos, playing games, browsing the web, or video chatting. Occasionally the three girls on the centre bunk interrupt the mindless scrolling and chatter with a post-rock song that they play from guitars and electronic instruments on their beds.
The audience is invited to interact via WeChat, and this is Interesting. A crowd with a lot of teenagers, there are some questionable messages and a whole lot of memes at the start, but as the girls wake up and begin talking amongst themselves the audience begins depending on the Mandarin speakers in the room to connect us with what is going on. It’s mostly mundane, I’m hungry/bored/fat/cute kind of things, but I really enjoy that I am only able to have this insight through other audience members.
At long last, the girls turn their attention on us. They break the fourth wall and venture out. The feeling in the room shifts with this connection. They whisper into ears, one offers feathers from wings she wears and plays a silly game as she goes. But it’s the grand finale that’s worth waiting for, and I am left feeling giggly and young.
While at the start Here is the Message felt as if it was trying, or dragging, the tension that built and the subsequent release made it well worth it. It’s only showing tonight and tomorrow night, but make it if you can.
4/5 stars
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