Sick review

Mention the word hospital or being sick and the memories that most people will have will be negative. But NICA's third year students from the Bachelor of Circus Arts are here to change that with their final showcase performance, SICK. Directed by Gavin Marshall, the show is inspired by Marshall's two month hospital stay where doctors tried to determine why his body was falling apart on him.

With this personal experience, Marshall captures the mundaneness, the ridiculousness and the gravity of hospital life. Taking place over 24 hours at St. Nowhere Hospital, the show opens with a number of patients passing time in the waiting room as they keep themselves occupied. On the other side of this wall we observe doctors and nurses in the staff room, tired, overworked and hurriedly getting themselves prepared for the onslaught of what is behind those doors.

The Infirmary review

There comes a point in life where it all ends. Life ends. While there are many theories as to what happens to us when we die, nothing is certain about what happens when we have breathed our final breath. Presented as part of Arts House's Mere Mortals season on death and all its facets, The Infirmary is a live art immersive experience designed to leave you questioning your death and what inevitably awaits us.

This is the first part of Triage Live Art Collective's Death Trilogy and in The Infirmary, we are prepared for our death and live through our final hours. This intimate show for a small number of participants begins with individuals being triaged by a clinical nurse. Once formally admitted, we are guided through a hospital corridor and numerous hospital rooms. Despite the movement that is occurring with the various nurses getting their "patients" comfortable, there is a quietness and stillness to my surroundings that I find immediately soothing.