A hard-hitting look at myth, war and cultural appropriation from Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre.

Back to Back Theatre

Carriageworks, March 14

Weaving together elements of religion, myth and wartime history, Ganesh vs The Third Reich offers something new to theatre-goers who think they've seen it all. 

Originally conceived and work-shopped in 2008, the play tells the story of Hindu deity Ganesh on a mission to reclaim the swastika – a traditional Hindu symbol – from Nazi Germany. From this unusual premise flows forth an intricate play within a play, with the behind-the-scenes process of bringing the mythical tale to life interspersed with tension-fraught rehearsals.

The cast is made up of actors from Back to Back Theatre with mental disabilities. From this perspective, poignant evocations of the T4 program are illuminated: the mass extermination program the Nazis undertook against disabled persons in World War II.

Ganesh never lets us escape entirely into illusions; it keeps undermining them, and forces us into fresh considerations of how we consume theatre and what expectations we bring to it. That includes what we expect actors to be.

Brian Tilley as Ganesh is imposing and well-measured. Simon Laherty’s performance as the young Jewish man who befriends Ganesh is particularly affecting, with the many complexities of the work woven together without a glitch by Director Bruce Gladwin. Although not its focus the piece is also very humorous; the strained relationships between cast members and director in the struggle to perfect their performances – notwithstanding the added struggles of having to speak German – provide several laugh-out-loud moments.

Design, by Mark Cuthbertson and Ian Hinkley, succeeds in securing the piece between theatrics and harsh reality. The blank space of Carriageworks is artfully altered scene to scene through the use of retractable plastic curtains. Mesmerising projections are provided by lighting director Andrew Livingstone, while musical director Lachlan Carrick offers an emotive and suspenseful score, most affecting at the drama's tense climax.

The play is not a feel-good celebration of theatre; it is instead an exploration of theatre as an indefinitely renewable quest. Shining as an uncompromising exploration of religion and wartime atrocities, it stands as a grounded testament to the prickly process of overcoming obstacles.