The Ceremony is Ben Volchok’s eighth solo show, but it is like no other he’s created before. “I was used to things being written and planned and curated but this show is a conscious challenge for myself of letting go of the crutches you have with a scripted show – I throw myself into the abyss of the moment and have to open myself up as a person and performer to whatever happens.”
To mark his 30th birthday during 2020, Volchok sent a survey to a number of friends and invited them to a video call entitled 30th Birthday Ceremony, but provided no other information. The survey asked his friends their experiences and feelings towards regret, hope, and growing older.
“I opened the meeting and started talking and that was it. People didn’t have any idea what was going on and didn’t know if I was serious or not. They would chime in and it was a communal way to put a marker in the ground of my life. It was personal and meaningful and I had to pull myself into the moment.”
This sparked a performance craving for this spontaneous energy, well removed from his previous scripted solo shows. “It was earnest but also kind of bizarre and ludicrous at the same time. It’s loosely tied to the idea of ritual and meaning but with this idea we create our own meaning.”
The online survey became prompts on pieces of paper and a bucket to pull from. Based roughly on the past, present and future, Volchok (or the audience) read from the prompts and then explore participant’s trials, tribulations and successes.
“It becomes like an in-joke with that audience – no one else can know. Because of that it has meaning as we are the only ones who have lived it. It’s silly and chaotic but it is a real experience because we experienced it together. You find these real moments of profundity alongside these moments of joy and exhilaration.”
With a completely blank slate each night, there’s no way of knowing what stories will be told and what feelings they will evoke.
“It’s simply a series of these disparate experiences and it all makes absolutely no sense, but somehow still makes sense. It’s so empty that you have to project your own meaning. So is it empty in the first place?
“People surprise themselves in the show. I’m always so touched. It’s interesting to see how willing people are to share what we don’t often consider. In a show, we’re not really stepping outside of our lives – the world is turning and those seconds are still passing, our hearts are still beating – I try to tap into that subconsciously.”
The Ceremony, The Courtyard of Curiosities; and State Library – The Chapel, until 9 March