“We won’t wear our headphones in anger, or go to sleep in anger…I will not eat cashews because you can’t…and we will never, ever leave.”

Pond opens with a voiceover and a couple undressing each other gently, methodically but decidedly dispassionately, bathed in fluorescent light. They get dressed and climb into bed. Turn their laptops on. Switch off. The words of the voiceover held so much promise. But it was pre-recorded. Distant. Only an echo of the love it professed. “Thanks,” he says. “Yeah, I needed that,” she responds. Some afterglow. We have entered the apartment through a glitch and now we are stuck here, surrounded by plant life exploding from piles of superceded technology, white noise and a considerable absence of conversation. As an audience, we are not invited to become comfortable in their silence but rather to observe and reject it. It is oh so quiet; too quiet.

Grit Theatre caused a stir at last year’s Melbourne Fringe, winning the award for best production and taking out two Green Room awards. Although Pond has a very different tone, it still explores themes and relationships both unique to a Melbourne audience and also universal to Generation Y. Although our technology addiction and the ironic disconnect created by ‘connecting’ online has been explored time and again, Grit Theatre’s exploration of these themes was nonetheless incredibly well presented. Furthermore, Madeleine Worthington’s set design is exceptional, creating a claustrophobic world where the tension between nature and nurture is palpable.

Goldfish only grow as large as the size of their pond, and likewise the couple is unable to expand their minds or their experience beyond the walls of their apartment. Their static is stifling and at times I wanted to get out of my seat and slap them out of it, or yell at them, or hold them; anything to break the interminable hum of static electricity. Pond bored and repulsed me at points, made me sink in my seat and wish I could flick over to the next channel, perfectly illustrating how easy it is to become disengaged but ultimately rewarding its audience with the revelation that it is possible to reconnect.