Up close people watching exposes peculiar habits

A scene from Gaff Aff. Photo / Mario Del Curto

Anybody who chooses a seat in a restaurant based on its suitability for people-watching will appreciate the inspiration behind Gaff Aff, which opened last night as part of the Auckland Arts Festival.

"When we started this piece, we asked ourselves, 'What is an attraction today?' We have so many things around us - television, these things - that we forget to watch the closest things, like the person next to us," said Dimitri de Perrot, 34, one half of the production.

"So we had an idea of exposing a human being and maybe to watch him."

Martin Zimmermann, 40, plays that human being - a spun-out office worker who struggles to cope with the movement of a stage made of two gigantic turntables.

As the stage's outer ring moves in a different direction to the inner, everyday tasks like opening a door or working at a desk become impossibly chaotic.

De Perrot supplies the soundtrack from a DJ booth.

While the show appears to have obvious themes, such as man's struggle to make sense of the modern world, Zimmermann said audiences would take their own meaning from it.

"We're all part of wanting to be somebody, and trying to play something, pretending to be somebody. We are all like that, so we are all part of this big theatre in a way."

Not that you need to think too deeply about it - Zimmermann trained at the national circus school in France and his absurd interaction with the set produces slapstick humour.

"We have a lot of children coming ... and that's important because sometimes if you work in the theatre, it's a bit intellectual. And the children just react, they just love it. It's completely spontaneous."

Gaff Aff is at the Bruce Mason Centre tonight to Saturday at 7.30pm.