A Note on Grand Theft Theatre, Adelaide Festival 2024

When we talk about Grand Theft Theatre we usually try to explain it as an act of collective memory. Or of summoning the theatre ghosts that continue to haunt us. Of course, both of those things are true. But the more times we return to this show (Adelaide marks its third iteration), the more it feels like that Grand Theft Theatre is an attempt to understand ourselves via our collective obsession with our chosen artform.

The structure of Grand Theft Theatre is simple - 6 artists reflect upon, then attempt to create an echo of, a moment from a theatre work that was in some way significant to us. We each do this twice, though there are many more than 12 performances that reverberate throughout Grand Theft Theatre. Our memories of these shows are always partial, sometimes confused, and often colored by the context of how and when they were viewed. Our attempts to recreate moments from these shows, without means and shorn of context, are always doomed for failure. But something in these ever-failing attempts remains compelling - the struggle to articulate precisely why theatre feels so important to us all.  

 

It’s somewhat of a cliche to consider theatre as a religious practice for secular people, but it is nevertheless true that there is something about theatre that connects us to something ever-so-much vaster than ourselves. Grand Theft Theatre is a stumbling attempt to map the contours of this vastness. 

 

David Williams, March 2024