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Fringe 2008 Reviews (18)
Danceforms: The 42nd Choreographers’
Showcase
Rocket @ Demarco Roxy Art House
***(*)
Danceforms deliver a solid line-up of contemporary choreography
in this showcase which varies in style, pace and influence from multidisciplinary
Indian dance to intriguing female solos.
The Temple of Fine Arts, an institution based in several countries
including Malaysia and the UK, steals the show with their opening piece,
Shakti The Eternal Energy. Choreographer Sarasa Krishnan
has created a fascinating ensemble dance, as vibrant in colour and execution
as it is interesting in its sources and influences. Krishnan draws on
Indian philosophy and legend to weave together a five-part sequence,
each represented by a poem, whose authors stretch from the ancients
to the 20th century. The costumes are beautiful bells on belts
and coloured sashes for the female dancers, black trousers and bare
chests for the males. As the dance progresses, the spirit of Kali, portrayed
with strong poise and sensuous energy by Umesh Shetty, is purged and
the exquisite Krishna (Sandhya Suresh) emerges. Throughout the piece
choreographer Krishnan, also an artist, works away at a painting on
a backcloth, and meanwhile the air is thick from the incense they scatter
before the dance begins. It’s a feast for the senses in every possible
way.
Darla Johnson’s Map Making shifts the mood, with an ethereal
duet performed by Amanda McCorkle and Michelle Nance dressed in angelic
rags. The delicate score is matched by their sweeping energy as they
fold gently into mirroring one another, then flow in opposite directions.
Sometimes the dance turns introspective as they clutch their bellies
and thighs, but it never quite develops.
Valli Boobal Batchelor’s Bathsheba’s Voice uses Australian
and Indian dance forms to tell the biblical story of Bathsheba as a
metaphor for violence against women. There are arresting moments, such
as Bathsheba’s seduction by David which here is portrayed as rape,
but the constantly changing pace of the score becomes intrusive and
distracting after a while.
Two contrasting solos mark another change in pace. Sarah M. Barry’s
short piece, Something About Him, plays with gender, not only
in Barry’s donning of a masculine waistcoat, shirt and trousers,
but in her movements, which seem androgynous, gathering sensual momentum
then freezing suddenly in strong poses. Michells Nance’s White
Mourning in Black is starker, starting and finishing with Nance
curled up like an egg on the floor, wearing the black of the title.
The score shifts from water-like electric droplets to a drone of mismatched
human voices, and accordingly Nance’s movements speed up to a manic
pace then slowly exhale as if treading through water. There is an almost
alien quality to her at times in this carefully executed, intriguing
piece.
To finish, Maria Hackbarth’s Outlier has a lighter, more
accessible feel to it, as the four female dancers in burlesque style
fishnet body stockings roll and whirl around one another like haywire
clockwork toys. At one and a half hours this tasting menu of dance is
perfect value for money, and a great way to spend a morning gorging
on a diverse range of choreography.
Until 9th August
Lucy Ribchester
Devil in Drag
By Dario Fo
Breast Assembly
Sweet ECA, Edinburgh College of Art
*
'Just don't go nodding off!' warns the housekeeper to the audience.
Would that were possible! Unfortunately Breast Assembly keep the audience
pitilessly awake with a painful, if enthusiastic, version of Dario Fo's
Devil in Drag. An all-female cast from Portsmouth High School
take on the medieval tale of corruption, judgement, demonic possession
and what it is to love with a woman's heart. With their bad Italian
accents (and one actor who evidently couldn't be bothered to join the
rest of the cast in the 'comedy' accent), ill-fitting costumes, late
entrances, bad sound cues, forgotten costumes, inept scene changes,
these girls have a badly made play with a badly made production. Whatever
talent they have is buried deep under their comedy breasts and perhaps
in another guise we would be able to see it - the talent, not the breasts
- please god, no more breasts!
Cecily Boys
Kes (A Kestrel For A Knave)
Beacon Theatre Group
Augustine's
**
This youthful production of the fantastic book mixes a cast of young
and old actors. With a booming sound track and some stylised movement
pieces the youth element add comment to the environment of violence
and bullying that Billy Casper grows up in. Billy Casper is played with
great commitment by Christopher Hudson who has a lot of potential ahead
of him on the stage despite his misguided Yorkshire accent. Yorkshire
residents will either take offence or laugh heartily at the unintentionally
comic use of 'tut' amongst the cast. Would they had been given some
speech training! Nonetheless another good performance comes from Sam
Robinson as Jud. However the cast surrounding these actors come across
as inexperienced (including the adults) and somewhat under directed
in the fight scenes when it becomes a bit of a free-for-all. Hesitant
and fumbled lines among the adults also do not aid this production.
Fun to see if you like youth theatre and extremely basic sets, but not
for everyone if you don't.
Cecily Boys
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