Thursday 16 October 2014

Complexity of Belonging, Oct 13, 2014 ***

By Falk Richter & Anouk Van Dijk
Melbourne Festival
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner; Oct 6 to Nov 1, 2014
Produced by Melbourne Festival, Brisbane Festival, Chunky Move & Melbourne Theatre Company
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
I am not reviewing this show for Herald Sun but I saw it on Oct 13. I've written a short comment about it. KH


The collision of choreography and monologue creates some compelling moments in this piece that features dancers and actors, although the piece in its entirety is not quite cohesive.

The most powerful scenes include Stephen Phillips' ranting monologue about range, confusion and depression while Lauren Langlois tears at him, scrambling over his body, capturing the intensity of his inner turmoil in their duet of anger and despair.

Another strong scene is Langlois'  monologue listing everything that she demands of The Perfect Man. As she itemises cooking, great sex and blue-or-brown eyes, dancer James Vu Anh Pham lifts her, hurls her and challenges her physically, making this a witty and confronting moment.

Josh Price's gentle ramblings about the kind of man he is and is not, is charming and funny.

The design (Robert Cousins)is a beautifully simply back projection of a vast Australian sky above an arid, sepia land.

The dance and text do not always mesh and the stage becomes a muddle of personal  and ficitonalised narration, many of which do not illuminate the issue of "belonging".

By Kate Herbert

Direction & choreography by Anouk Van Dijk & Falk Richter
Text by Falk Richter 

Cast:
Joel Bray
Lauren Langlois
Alya Manzart
James Vu Anh Pham
Tara Soh
Stephen Phillips
Eloise Mignon
Josh Price
Karen Sibbing

Set Designer: Robert Cousins
Costume: Mel Page
Dramaturg: Nils Haarmann
Dramaturg:  & Translator: Daniel Schlusser
Gary Abrahams
Niharika Senaparti


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