If you’ve ever wanted to know how a filmed fight scene unfolds, Stunt Double provides a front-row seat. Contemporary dance company The Farm offer their most cinematic production yet, in partnership with Screen Queensland, no less.

We’re on the set of a fictitious Ozploitation flick in the early 70s. The story starts in an outback pub, and the chauvinistic male lead (Gavin Webber) is in a safari suit, as is his stunt double (David Carberry). Planted “extras” are summoned from the back of the auditorium, and join the performers on stage for their two minutes of fame, guided by a pretentious director (Grayson Millwood), and the harried associate director (Ngoc Phan).

Kate Harman plays the stage actress who has landed her first film gig, with Essie Horn perfectly cast as her doppelgänger (the two performers really do look alike). Naturally, there’s a bar fight scene, complete with judo throws, splintered pool cues, and expertly timed sound effects.

But just as the audience gets used to the stop-and-start schtick of a film shoot, the story explodes – we are shown snippets of a behind-the-scenes mockumentary about the movie; and the stars and their doubles explore their relationships in increasingly tense and dramatic sequences. (One scene, complete with white picket fence and a cricket bat-wielding Webber, is an unexpected Australian take on the iconic “dream ballet” from Oklahoma!)

We quickly learn that who gets screen time, and who gets the credit, are two very different things. In a striking section, Harman and Horn are dressed in red, their bodies fusing and unfurling like an ouroboros. The star and the stunt double may rely on each other’s skills, but it is a perfectly unequal relationship.

It is Carberry and Horn whose characters (and bodies) are repeatedly challenged, and while we appreciate their fearless athleticism, we also see the strapping, padding, and emotional fallout that accompanies their occupation.

Stunt Double packs a lot into its 80-minute run time, but the regular shifts of perspective and tone mean that some narrative threads – including the production’s most shocking scene – feel incomplete.

In the context of the strikes playing out in Hollywood for fair acknowledgement and fair pay, Stunt Double is a timely and entertaining reflection on the power dynamics of the film industry.

Stunt Double plays at the Brisbane Powerhouse until September 9.

brisbanefestival.com.au

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