story #3
(gaping hole)

With Story #3 (Gaping Hole), Rachel and I continued our exploration of the possibilities of radical narrative when we were given a commission by Ovalhouse that came with the invitation to destroy parts of building. So we thought a lot about holes.

We blasted a huge hole in the floor and the wall of the Upstairs Theatre and made a show that first addresses plot holes in well known movies and then goes on to reveal an email exchange between Rachel and me exposing the ‘plot holes’ in our own lives—the inconsistencies we paper over in order to keep going as we are. The whole thing unravels in a live green screen effect.

In the Shawshank Redemption, wrongly convicted Andy Dufresne spends years digging a tunnel to freedom from his prison cell. He hides his work under a large picture of Rita Hayworth. On the day of his escape, Andy crawls his way towards the outside world and perfectly replaces the poster on the wall to mask his escape route. We’re so emotionally satisfied when Andy rips off his prison uniform in the rain that we forget to ask how he could possibly have replaced the poster from inside the tunnel.

But how *could* he possibly have replaced the poster from inside the tunnel?

What holes are we prepared to overlook in order to stay comfortable?

Following Mars and Wohead’s cult hit Story #1, Gaping Hole (Story #3) is the third part in a non-linear trilogy about radical narrative.