When does a house become a home? That is the central question in American theatremaker Geoff Sobelle’s HOME, an innovative, richly imaginative performance and act of theatrical spectacle that sees a house materialise before the audience, rising swiftly like a time-lapse sequence. Over time, the residents inhabit it, move in and out, build and break it, and leave behind traces of their past, present, and future lives. The house becomes a stage for transformations—evictions, celebrations, tragedies, and rebirths. It’s a place where time itself feels fluid, as the characters throw a party, transcending the linear constraints of existence, becoming an embodiment of the ephemeral and ever-shifting nature of “home.”

In creating HOME, Geoff Sobelle speaks of its origins, and how he drew from personal experiences and profound questions about housing, migration, and the universal themes of gentrification. “It’s been about 10 years since I received the initial prompt for HOME, when I was invited to do a second show at a theatre in New York City, after the first one, called The Object Lesson, was a success,” says Geoff. “For a while now, I’d thinking about how different places and spaces could mean so much to people, and it so happens that this theatre was one of my favourite buildings in New York, so I was very excited to come to the theatre to do a show like this.”

“This was a show that was created when Trump was elected, and in the days after, we were sitting around feeling quite sad, all while brainstorming how to bring this to life. But we looked at each other and said: you know what, approach this moment with radical love, a sense of inclusiveness,” he adds. “And the hope for the show took shape, that we would tour this show around USA to even the Red states, and hopefully show that we’re not these assholes from New York, but we find a way of reaching across borders, that we find a way to connect over a shared experience together in this increasingly divisive country.”

To do that, the performance mirrors how people interact with the structure of a house—moving in, leaving, reshaping it in ways that reflect both social and political forces. As the structure of the house transforms, the audience witnesses the fleeting nature of home and the challenges of building and maintaining a sense of belonging. “While The Object Lesson was a solo show, we were now attempting to make something completely different, involving maybe 50 people onstage. And while initially we thought that might be a nightmare when it comes to finding actors, instead, we figured we’d work our way around it: involving the audience,” says Geoff.

“It can be challenging to make people feel less afraid of that they’re going to be made fun of onstage, but that’s a challenge my collaborators and I were excited to take on, and learn to work with them, rather than make people feel forced into it,” he adds. “The trick is to create a kind of empathy in the audience, where you may start off just being a passive viewer, but by the end, you’re going to be laughing and smiling alongside the performers, and willing to be a part of the show, while ensuring it all remains cohesive; you enter a house of theatre, and leave feeling like it’s a home.”

HOME has since seen plenty of success, touring internationally to Edinburgh, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, and Germany. But that journey hasn’t been an easy one. “This show is a hustle. The only way it works is if everyone is completely on their A-game and working really hard, and I’m glad the team has been willing to follow it through on this journey,” says Geoff. “Everyone has a really good sense of humour and we’re treating all of this like this big art project, where everyone wants to contribute their part. It’s been a process, albeit a fun one, where you push people into finding something they’re good at and leaving their mark, with everyone willing to find interesting ways to accomplish the things just a little out of their reach.”

“Especially the set itself; it was something we’d never done before, only read about in theory in magic books. We worked with models at first, and while theoretically it should work, that was a mammoth task with all the moving parts involved,” he adds. “But well, it’s a combination of both what the set does, as well as what we convey to the audience to make sure everyone, and I mean everyone, is all on board with the process.”

Geoff describes himself as a ‘dedicated absurdist’, and applies that same philosophy to his work. “The definition that I most readily embrace is to put in the most amount of effort for the least amount of gain, sort of like what Buster Keaton would do on film, where the thrill of being an audience is to see just how far he would go,” says Geoff. “This concept can even apply to how simple it seems to leave the house, but as a father of two little kids, it can wind up taking a lot more effort than you think, to the point of exasperation. But at some point, you start to see the beauty and humour in it all, audacious but entertaining, and most of all, perhaps even reveal some kernel of truth to life.”

Of course, at the heart of it all, the biggest question remains – what is a home? “That’s the question the show proposes, but doesn’t necessarily answer,” says Geoff. “I’ve asked a lot of people this, and the answer varies greatly. And sometimes it gets into very wild, abstract territory too. For myself, personally, home has always been a feeling of belonging, and I remain amazed by how it can be something like the smell or even just this innate sixth sense you get that makes you feel like somewhere is home, something we try to recreate in the show.”

“I remember when I was around 20, and I loved the feeling of being alone in an empty theatre, this place with the ghost light and empty seats, something about that just felt so good to me.” Or take for example how I’m from Southern California, and when we toured to Australia, it all felt strangely familiar, from the sunshine to the eucalyptus trees. That’s one way of feeling close to a place. But really, what makes a home is its people, and as long as your family and your people are with you, it becomes easier to find a sense of home,” he adds. “Over the course of the show, I ended up getting married and we used a lot of tango music in the show while my wife was pregnant with my daughter, and I like to think that she now hears something more in tango music, maybe makes her think of her family.”

On his continued interest in theatre, Geoff mentions his relationship with Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre, where he spent many formative years and continued to work with long after. “I met some of the founding members when I was studying at the Lecoq School in Paris, and we became very close friends. After they formed the company and I returned to the States, I joined their projects, which felt like a natural fit for me,” he says. “I joined the company after that and moved to Philadelphia, and they’ve been so integral to me and my approach to theatre. There’s almost this intellectual rigour to them that makes them feel like a research centre, and how they keep spurring conversations. They always create unique productions, and pay attention to the art of theatremaking, and how light, sound, movement and all these other elements come together to create meaning. To them, ensemble was the most important thing, and spending my 20s with them made them my family, and shaped how I work today.”

And of course, Geoff continues to fuel his passion for theatre, continually inspired by the simplest of encounters. “I was always in love with the theatrical form and how much potential it held, especially when it came to meeting so many fantastic people and how exciting it would be to work together with them. I thrive in that environment, and eventually, I decided to move away from Philadelphia to see if the work I wanted to make could thrive in an even larger market, in New York,” he says. “I’m lucky that I found an amazing producer who’s helped make that happen, especially with all these boutique shows we keep making, against this corporate-driven world and industry we tend to live in.”

“As we move into a world that’s so much more technologically-driven, I think that live theatre will increasingly become more of a luxury, and hopefully, more valued and cherished by everyone. I hope that HOME, and other shows by American artists, continue to show that there’s more to us than what you might assume, that we are not afraid of complexity, not afraid of love, that we’re not afraid to have fun, and acknowledge that we can make art of and pass commentary on all the atrocities committed in the name of freedom and democracy, and find that love and connection we need more than ever in the theatre.”

HOME plays from 22nd – 25th May 2025 at Victoria Theatre. Tickets available from BookMyShow

The 2025 Singapore International Festival of Arts runs from 16th May to 1st June 2025. Tickets and more available here