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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