Berlin by Sydney Dance Company, 5 March 1996

 

Berlin by Sydney Dance Company

Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, during March 1996

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 5 March 1996

 

Berlin is a stark, often overwhelmingly angst-ridden collage of choreographic scenes piercing the core of war-time Berlin.

 

Graham Murphy's latest production for Sydney Dance Company drags together the threads of brutality and tenderness which epitomise human behaviour in its most intense moments: moments such as sex and war. Murphy's choreography is gloriously imagistic, combining Grunge with class.

 

Berlin is blindingly beautiful and poignant, incorporating so many simple, evocative and unexpected physical images. I loved the unity of the show which runs 80 minutes without interval. Without being linear or literal it integrates a narrative built on characters. It utilises the characteristics of dance and its intense physicality and rigour in addition to the richness of a text-free theatricality and characterisation.

 

There are the stereotypical Berlin characters: the cabaret singer, the drag artist, but there are also the street people, the lovers, the circus performers, the tough child and his father, the waif and her mother. There is corruption, decadence, loss and confusion. The people are in pain, they are ragged, degraded, tormented and seduced by soldiers but somehow, in all this pain, they maintain some dignity which is the only way to survive.

 

All this can be done in theatre, in documentary footage on war-time Berlin but the pure passion and excitement of Murphy's choreography cannot but make it all the more confronting, desperate and challenging.

 

The musician, Max Lambert and singer Iva Davies are inserted into the design amongst the dancers and the detritus of the ravaged city.

 

The company of dancers has great skill and a rich cultural and physical diversity which gives breadth to the images. The musician, Max Lambert and singer Iva Davies are inserted into the design amongst the dancers and the detritus of the ravaged city. lambert's striking music and Davies songs are well-placed in the context both physically and emotionally.  The design by Andrew Carter is powerful and John Rayment's lighting was striking and often frightening.

 

Berlin is steeped in imagery and humanity. It is passionate, intense and speaks clearly with a physical voice. It is truly Dance Theatre.

 

By Kate Herbert