in the blink of an eye- playback theatre sydney

ok- so having been to playback south in london, which was great to see how performance can come entirely from material (in this form of theatre- stories) offered by the audience and improvised back on the spot, have now been to playback theatre in sydney . this form of theatre uses metaphors focusing on feelings of the storytellers, relaying stories, moments, tragedies, dreams...and physically embodying objects and actions, it is a method used in psychodrama as a form of therapy- its therefore interesting to consider the type of audience member you get, why they are there.
there were many common elements shaping the evening but overall the sydney experience was much more cohesive and intimate- with a theme set for the evening to the stories- 'in the blink of an eye' and music accompanyment throughout to direct the mood, 8 rather than 4 performers,(audience of 50 in a tiered auditorium)but i guess that such an event can be shaped by those who offer their stories and how engaging these are to the audience- in this performance the stories were incredibly explicit of their situation-told to a room of strangers- and full of personal insight- the day i got my diagnosis with MS aged 18 to the day dad left aged 9 and then 15 yrs later my parents got back together and supported each other through cancer.the tellers sit on a couch at the front of the stage with the conductor who asks questions and once story had been told and theres a definite star middle and end defined, the teller picks characters, the conductor picks the style- eg chorus, and then watches it played back, asking the teller at the end how they felt about it. the story about the MS diagnosis used performers as the diagnosis envelope and as the disease attacking her legs simulating pins and needles as well as someone playing her...the playback was clever, real, emotionally charged and the teller was pretty choked saying, yes that was how it felt, it was good to visualise it. finding a new way of relating to or perspective on a difficult experience in your life?

in london playback my friend told her story of a geeky trainspotter on the eurostar train home to paris who she found fascinating, however she was a bit annoyed with the playback as it was centering on the emotions of reuniting with her family in paris rather than the oddities on the trainspotter- maybe this was because the playback seems to centre on the tellers emotions rather more than the actions- she knew what actions the trainspotter was doing through seeing him but didn't not know why??

overall- i would like to look more at methods employed to improvise and the experience of an audience member through participating, and the relationship between the original event, the telling and the retelling-playback

ps not sure about this photo- seems a bit too carry-on......;)