Join the cult: Nathan Sibthorpe on why Counterpilot’s new production is unlike anything you’ve experienced

To start, we’d love to know more about the origins of Counterpilot. How did the collective form and what would you say is the overarching ethos behind the work it produces?

The collective formed slowly over time as we developed a particular kind of work that we wanted to make, which sat outside everyone else’s categories. We like to say that theatre doesn’t happen on stages, it happens in the spaces between people – every Counterpilot project is about finding strange new ways of making moments of theatre happen between people.

Counterpilot’s productions often use technology as more than just a tool or backdrop, and audience participation as part of its performance. What interests you about the relationship between technology, interactivity and live performance?

We find that technical design can unlock audiences for interactive experiences. When we interact with a performer playing a fictional character, we tend to shrink ourselves a little bit because we don’t want to break the fiction, and maybe our characters struggle to co-exist. But we’re so used to being authentically ourselves when we engage with technology that technical design allows us to meet it on our own terms – it lets you be the protagonist.

Not a Cult* is an incredibly creative concept – where did the idea for the production first come from?

We really liked the idea of making a covert experience in the middle of a festival where everyone might be aware of something happening, but only the chosen few would truly understand what was going on. We were basically dreaming of making a cult – but then we started asking what cult-like forces already existed in our lives. And we became excited by the idea that maybe middle-class Australia was itself a bit of a cult.

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How does Counterpilot workshop a production from concept to finished product? Did the creation of Not a Cult* provide any unique challenges or opportunities for experimentation?

In the same way that we think theatre happens in the spaces between people, we think theatre needs to be made in the spaces between people. It takes a lot of playing around to find the right kind of magic. For Not a Cult* we staged a lot of experiments with test audiences – the work only emerged when we got to see large groups of people encountering it fresh and finding the unique joy in it together.

The show pokes fun at everything from multi-level marketing schemes to systemic inequality. What aspects of contemporary life were you most eager to unpack and examine?

The housing crisis is as much in the headlines now as it was when we first made the show. Our fraught relationship with the Australian dream of a house and backyard — that has always been the wound we most needed to poke at. I still can’t afford a house and backyard!

Australia’s “she’ll be right” mentality is also placed under the microscope. Why does toxic positivity and our collective obsession with optimism feel like fertile ground for satire right now?

Because everything is not okay! And it often feels like we’re not allowed to acknowledge the crushing darkness, the increasingly powerful evil forces, the broad and all-consuming enshittification of all things… but Lord, we really have to acknowledge it, right? Either we make art to turn those feelings into joyful release – or we just scream into the sky for a bit. Both are valid options. 

Without giving too much away, what can audiences expect to feel when they’re walking around South Bank carrying barbecue tongs and following mysterious instructions?

They can expect to feel a part of something bigger than themselves – at first in a way that feels silly and meaningless, and then eventually in a way that feels bizarrely euphoric and surprisingly bonding. By the end, they should feel a beautiful sense of “WTF?!” that can only be shared by those who were there too.

Audience participation can be intimidating for some people. How do you create an experience that encourages people to surrender to the absurdity and say “yes”?

Excellent question! Believe it or not, most of the Counterpilot team are terrified of audience participation. We pride ourselves on crafting an environment for participation that makes it easy to say yes, and where you’re always supported by the experience – never left feeling the cringe. In Not a Cult*, we ease you in so gently, and use the power of the group to make the absurdity – and the collective “yes” – possible.

What do you hope audiences are still thinking about once they’ve taken off the robes and returned to everyday life?

I hope their sense of suspicion might be ignited, and that for some we might have stoked a certain kind of rage. But I also hope they’re still grinning maniacally long after they’ve left the cult – and that the feeling of “having a go” is forever in their veins. All we ever have is a moment, but for now we’re having it together.

Not a Cult* is running from September 10–18 as part of Brisbane Festival. Click here for more information.