Same Difference: immersed in the art

18 Feb 2023 - Photos: 'panels' by publicist and Paul Bellini

On February 15 I attended the opening night of Theatre Conspiracy’s Same Difference, an immersive mixed-media installation and digital performance by David Mesiha. It was presented by The Theatre Centre, and promised “to bathe, and sometimes plunge, audiences into ever-shifting cognitive and spatial perspectives.” Each audience member entered individually, and the first thing was to pose for a digital portrait. Then we were allowed inside the chamber, a huge dark space dominated by various faces digitally projected onto mirror surfaces. The effect was striking. The audio consisted of interviews with immigrants and refugees, but one had to listen hard to sort out the individual voices from the fray. At one point, I noticed my own shiny happy face projected onto a surface. The chamber was very dark, but as a gay man who has spent much of his life negotiating back rooms and bathhouses, that was no problem. Forty-five minutes later, the piece concluded, and we all filed out. Awaiting us downstairs was a Greek-style buffet. 

The point of Mesiha’s work is clear. “Same Difference evolved through my pursuit to understand how we evolve our sense of self and belonging,” states the artist. “The experience is a meditation on a sense of fracturing that emerges when we exist in-between spaces.” The whole thing was fun, but the only thing that concerned me was The Theatre Centre’s land acknowledgement, which states that the building ‘resides on stolen land in Tkaronto’. Well, if it was stolen, the only proper thing to do is to give it back.