” version 1.0’s treatment of the subject here is poignant and unsettling..” Alex Lalak, The Daily Telegraph

“SEXUAL violence, issues of consent and cross-communication in intimate relationships are perennially touchy subjects. You have to give it to Sydney’s Version 1.0 for taking them on. In the present social climate, against a backdrop of sexual violence in the sporting arena, you probably can’t afford to miss this show, although some will find it hard to digest. It has strong content and language, and deals with realities we might prefer to ignore. 4 stars” Louise Nunn, The Adelaide Advertiser

“Version 1.0’s mixed media and performance modes have cast a widely admired ironic and revealing light on contemporary politics, but in This Kind of Ruckus the company inhabit a reverie confabulated from their own raw materials instead of their customary drawing on government reports, Hansard and the media. The outcome is a large scale looping reverie of motifs, strange tales, fragmented encounters, unlikely cause and effect, missing links and a dense layering of metaphors. There’s little that’s literal. The outcome is a work of peculiar beauty, like a half-remembered dream, part-nightmare, replete with oddly aestheticised violence and not a little humour. “It was funny, in an ugly kind of way”, I heard someone say.” Keith Gallasch, RealTime

“...the company’s integration of physical performance with multimedia elements is exceptional, their excavation of the humorous within the deeply serious remains provocative. Recommended…” Jason Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald

“Version 1.0 is one of the most exciting theatre companies in Sydney. This Kind of Ruckus explores the complex terrain of sexual politics and references sex scandals such as the Matthew Johns affair. It’s timely and relevant work. [...] It’s a confronting contemporary comment about consent, sexual assault and rape.[...] Not easy but rewarding and intelligent theatre.” Jane Barton, South Sydney Herald

“It could be a forbidding engagement in the theatre, however, as difficult and as dark as this material may be, the work presented is intriguing, engrossing and demonstrates more than admirably, version 1.0’s objective, which is to present “innovative political performance.” [...] It seizes one by the scruff of one’s bourgeois complacency as a theatre goer having just sat in my seat after a drink and casual chat with friends about the inanities of one’s day and urges, demands attention from us to an area of societal behaviour that is often pushed, uncomfortably, away by us, to the consciousness of the social worker or police.[...] The cycle of cause and affect and the dreadful pattern of the behaviour is underlined in a brilliantly slow-burn kind of way. The attempts to expose the motivations of the perpetrators and victims are tantalising and confronting in their details. [...] The work itself and the performance carries some whack. It is hard not to be awakened to a very acute dilemma in our civilized culture…I recommend the Performance Space and version 1.0’s production of THIS KIND OF RUCKUS…” Kevin Jackson, kjtheatrereviews.blogspot.com

“To say I ‘enjoyed’ the show is not quite right, as it’s pretty full-on, confrontational and disturbing.  Admittedly it has a couple of laughs but the overall experience is not unlike being interrogated.  But the questions, difficult as they may be – are ones that need to be asked of our society if we are to move forward from seemingly endless headlines of yet another horrific crime against women.” 5th Wall, 5thwall.wordpress.com

“You can feel the physical power play taking place in front of you, and it’s uncomfortable – it’s something that we’ve all probably seen before, but presented in such a stark manner (with video screens displaying the action – and responses – from many different angles) it’s deeply unnerving. [...] It’s confronting, but politely so. It’s like those Jagermeister shots that don’t taste too bad going down, but kick you in the head later. And so here I sit, thinking about my own response to these issues, second-guessing whether I am in any way sensitive or aware of how my actions may affect others. Because I can recognise some of those “innocent” behaviours as my own – but without thinking that they could be seen as “sexually violent”. Hell, it even seems ludicrous now typing those words out in the context of the words before it, but the reality of those actions seen through the different lens that Ruckus provides leaves me head-spun and pondering.” Festival Freak, ff.moobaa.com

“The point is not to drive home a lesson, which can be easily learned and as easily forgotten, but to open a scab. Scratch this kind of theatre, and it’s no surprise to find Brecht. Version 1.0’s practice is in fact a very smart contemporary application of Brecht’s theory of Epic Theatre, which by describing an event from the contradictory angles of all its witnesses, attempts to build a truthful picture of what happened. Above all, it’s a dynamic picture, that opens out of the comforts of received wisdom the uncomfortable prickling of consciousness. Yes, it reminds you of the reasons to be angry: but most of all, at various levels from the subconscious up, it provokes thought. Frankly, it’s pretty rare to find theatre that so clearly and stylishly does exactly what it says it intends to do.” Alison Croggon, theatrenotes.blogspot.com

“This kind of ruckus does illustrate violence, sexual promiscuity and rash behaviour, and though all these can serve as part of a cautionary tale (or lesson), the performance is a vehicle to irritate the audience into awareness, and re-evaluation of what we may perceive as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and the gray areas which may fall between the cracks and never be considered in a situation or event which is innapropriate and scarring. I left the theatre milling the experience through my head, absorbing what I had just experienced and thinking that a This kind of ruckus should perhaps be made available on DVD to share with people who may miss it live. It’s incredibly powerful and should be shared.”  Gordana Andjelic-Davila, Arts Hub