Someday We’ll Find It review | Meat Market

Where can you swim with pigs on the beach? It’s one of the many questions Zachary Sheridan hurls into the void of the internet in Someday We’ll Find It. Over a tight 50 minutes, the work makes clever use of its time, playing with form and structure to probe our compulsive need to search for answers online. Some questions are absurd, some surprisingly profound, and others sit in the realm of the unanswerable, yet all speak to that endless, almost instinctive urge to keep typing, scrolling, and seeking.

Sheridan’s performance is notably restrained and grounded, a deliberate and necessary choice for a solo work built on such an unrelenting stream of text. Carrying long passages without pause, he allows rhythm and accumulation do the heavy lifting without over-performing. The stillness and control required to sustain that tone indicates a performer who understands exactly when to hold back. In doing so, he creates opportunities for the audience to project meaning onto the questions themselves, turning what could easily be repetitive into something absorbing, and at times, unexpectedly affecting.

It's hard not to think of Emma Hall's 2016 show We May Have to Choose, as Sheridan delivers a steady torrent of "how to..." and "where can..." questions, one after the other, with little overt emotion or judgement. The neutrality becomes the point, a kind of quiet overwhelm that mirrors the way we digest information online. Where Someday We’ll Find It carves out its own niche is in Grace Mallinson's set and costume design. Unlike Hall’s stripped-back approach with virtually no visual aids or staging, Sheridan is placed within a meticulously constructed office setting, one that is straight from the 90s, with clunky tech, cheesy motivational posters, and corporate drabness, complete with an unremarkable cream-coloured business suit. The outdated environment is juxtaposed with the hyper-modern act of endless searching, hinting at how deeply the internet has embedded itself into our lives. The result is borderline claustrophobic as we watch this man caught in a desperate loop.

Under the direction of Karla Livingstone-Pardy, that claustrophobia is pushed to the forefront. The office becomes less a workplace and more a prison cell, as Sheridan drifts through it trying to amuse himself, or simply fend off the creeping boredom that threatens to swallow him whole. His interactions with everyday objects, a water cooler, a wastebasket, take on a subtle curiosity, capturing that familiar, numbing restlessness of being stuck in a space with nowhere to go. After 45 minutes of controlled monotony, even the smallest disruption is seismic, and while the finale doesn’t aim for flashy theatrics, it is noticeable and effective, landing as a fitting release from the looping tension that has held everything in place.

Sheridan and the creative team have crafted a piece that is as intellectually playful as it is sharply observed, holding up a mirror to our habits and obsessions. Someday We'll Find It challenges as much as it entertains, leaving an unassuming provocative mark on the audience. 

SHOW DETAILS

Venue: Meat Market, 2 Wreckyn St, North Melbourne

Season: until 21 March | 7pm
Duration: 60 minutes

Tickets: $25 Full | Conc
 $19
Bookings: Meat Market