In contrast to much new media performance, Kris Verdonck’s ACTOR #1 does not attempt to accelerate time or to enhance the spectatorial experience by juxtaposing theatrical elements. Instead the work presents a three-phase meditation that strips back the tools and techniques of theatre to allow, or perhaps even compel, spectators to focus on a single element, to inhabit one state, or to consider a single idea at a time.

“Interculturalism” needs to be expanded and redefined to include the responses of spectators as well as the work of artists. In what ways does Theatre Works' Desdemona, as seen at the 2000 Adelaide Festival, represent a “new wave of Asian production”? Or are such works disturbing evidence of the increasing erosion of the local?