No Seasons is a unique experimental show by Oliver Ayres that explores gender, IVF, disability, and parenthood.

Upon entering the theatre audience members are asked to take a pair of headphones, color coded based on your lived experience:

– you are a parent already

– you are not a parent, but you might be one day

– you are not a parent and never will be

Before the performance even began, the artist had set up the tension. I experienced a low level of curious FOMO (fear of missing out) all the way through the show. I kept wanting to know the story people with different colour headphones could hear. And no, I’m not telling you my colour.

While multiple narratives played through headphones, the artist performed silently in and around what looked like an old bathhouse. At 19 Oliver had 22 eggs retrieved prior to a gender transition. 22 stones represented those eggs as Oliver’s dilemma unfolded in our ears and on a fragmented visual display.

The effect was beautiful. No Seasons is without a doubt an original work. A vulnerable, intimate and immersive insight into Oliver’s experience as a transgender man with a disability contemplating the possibility of becoming a parent.

If you are like me, you will get an itch to go back and experience the other narratives.

No Seasons is produced by SKINT. Sound design is by Justin Gardam and Rachel Lewindon, lighting design by Sidney Younger, and set design by Ashley Reid.

Tickets are available via Melbourne Fringe website. No Seasons is on at the Meat Market Stables, 2 Wreckyn st, North Melbourne until 18th October. Highly recommended.