Everything, Now! review | Rebekah Carton | Melbourne Fringe Festival | The Motley Wherehaus

Life is busy. Really busy. We are constantly rushing from one thing to the next, trying to fit more into our days than there is ever enough time for. There is always somewhere to be, something to do and another thing waiting for our attention. And somehow, we just keep adding to the list. Everything, Now! takes that constant state of busyness and pushes it to its limit as Rebekah Carton attempts to keep an impossible number of things under control as her to-do list grows, priorities shift and everything gradually starts to unravel.

Because she has to do everything herself, Carton begins by scanning the tickets of every audience member as they arrive. Once everyone is seated, she calmly explains that she has 45 minutes to complete as many as possible. She does this by pushing a large red button, which releases a random ticket containing an instruction to be read aloud by the Task Master. The Task Master is a different guest each evening, responsible for monitoring Carton's progress and deciding whether each task has been completed. On opening night, that responsibility fell to Oliver Bailey, who wonderfully took to the role as he approved or rejected her efforts.

We start off easily enough: sanitise your hands. But not five minutes in, Carton hits a roadblock. She cannot thread a needle! From there, the tasks escalate. Every now and again, Bailey instructs her to press the red button multiple times, loading her already growing list with several new duties. How can she walk 5,000 steps while carrying a watermelon, while speaking to her mother on the phone, while re-potting a plant? We soon find out.

Carton commits fully to the physical demands of this show. She moves rapidly from one to the next, often juggling a number of them at once, while maintaining the focus and composure needed to keep going as the urgency builds. There is an appealing determination to her performance, even when things inevitably begin to go wrong, and her ability to stay engaged with the audience helps prevent the piece from becoming a demonstration of how many tasks she can complete.

The absorbing score adds to this sense of mounting pressure, reminding me of a toned-down version of Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon. Pulsing beats build as the clock continues to count down and Carton races from one to the next. There are other musical moments along the way, but who gets to witness these will depend on what tasks are generated.

The ending is where Everything, Now! becomes more personal, with Carton opening up about how difficult it is for her to ask for help. It is a sincere moment, but it feels a little too direct, particularly when we have already watched her struggle to manage everything herself. There may have been something more effective in allowing Carton to reach her breaking point, ask for help and let the audience respond, and then allow the show to end on its reflective note.

Everything, Now! is an extremely relatable experience because we all know what it's like to always have something else that needs to be done. Carton takes that familiar frustration and turns it into an entertaining piece of theatre, finding humour in the increasingly impossible demands placed on her. As her list grows, the simple act of trying to keep up becomes progressively ridiculous, giving Carton plenty of opportunities to play with the expectations we put on ourselves.

Read our interview with Rebekah Carton here.

SHOW DETAILS 

Venue: The Motley Wherehaus, 432 Queen St, Melbourne
Season: until 11 October | 7.50pm

Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $35 Full | $25 Conc | $26.5 Hump Day Wednesday
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Image credit: Darren Gill