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Temporo

Jeremy Malcolm's Temporo

Where your future comes back to haunt you . . .

written by Jeremy Malcolm
directed by Simon James

Arena Arts & Entertainment Inc is proud to present the world premiere season of this original locally-written play.

Now showing Wed - Sat : 7th to 10th and 14th to 17th April, 2004.
Doors open at 7.40pm, performance commences at 8.00pm.
Venue: The Sun Room, Sixth Ave & Whatley Cres, Maylands.
Tickets : $14 Full, $12 Concession
BOOKINGS (08) 9362 4080

Temporo is a futuristic tale of corporate intrigue, in which the boundaries of science are pushed beyond the fantastic and towards the sinister.

One night in the dark offices of the Temporo Corporation, Jeanne has become suspicious of her employer's activities. But suddenly she is caught and seemingly shot dead by a strange woman called Jania.

Later, her replacement Hillary arrives for her first day at work, at what she believes to be a research firm in the field of Virtual Reality. She meets the overbearing Mr Ortega, his simpleton brother Derek, the wise-cracking computer programmer Syntax, a brilliant but serious scientist named Rico, and the down to earth secretary, Sue.

Elsewhere, plans are being hatched to subject Jeanne's body to a dangerous procedure. Hillary finds out that all is not as it seems at Temporo, as she learns of Jeanne's disappearance, and discovers that Temporo's employees can apparently exist between its local and Japanese office at will.

Jeanne is still very much alive, but for how long is uncertain, as it appears her body will be playing a central part in Jania's unnatural procedure. But something goes horribly wrong as it appears to turn Jeanne, and then Derek, savage.

Before Hillary can discover what is going on, Derek chases her and Syntax and Sue through a Portal at the heart of Temporo's operations . . . and they emerge where they could not possibly imagine . . .

Bookings now open! Phone (08) 9362 4080.

Director's Notes

It isn't that often that an established local company chooses to perform a locally written play. Until we started doing our Terry Pratchett Community Theatre productions, ARENA had a 100% record of producing locally-written works. It's nice to keep this side of our operations going outside of the Theatre For Schools sphere.

The script for TEMPORO appeared on my desk during a rather delightful CARPE party (it was extremely delightful if I remember correctly, but I can't guarantee ... er ... accurate recall), deposited there by someone calling themselves "The Mystery Playwright". After reading the script, it wasn't much of a mystery to work out who the author was. Jeremy's mind is a marvel to behold and a pit to explore, and his love of and exploration of science-fiction and its myriad concepts flowed from the pages like wispy Dr Who title sequence special effects.

Yes, it was about time ARENA produced a local writer's works (apart from my own, I mean), and the production fitted in nicely with our production resources as well as the type of plays we like doing.

It was a bit strange in early rehearsals to be working with a cast of nine. Usually it's been between twenty and thirty. And the smaller stage dimensions of our chosen venue made blocking the moves rather challenging. That, and despite some of the action sequences in the play, it is mainly people discussing and discovering scientiffic concepts. Doubly challenging. But still, after managing to succesfully manipulate the places and movements of very big casts in our more epic productions, the flow of character movement and character thought soon melded more cohesively than perhaps Mr Spock could have done.

Despite the science and the jargon the characters use, it was important to focus on the human side of TEMPORO. Within that human side is the essential drama of people either in contrast or in conflict with each other. Despite the science and the jargon the characters use, it is the people in the story that are what propels the story.

I hope that we found that balance between the action and concepts and the human expression in our production of TEMPORO.

Special Thanks

The director, cast and crew of Temporo would like to extend their thanks to: