THEATRE Rawcus
At Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, until 11 July 2021
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***1/2
This review is published only on this blog. KH
Rawcus Ensemble, GLASS. Photo by Pia Johnson
Rawcus Ensemble has waited over a year to be able to perform its latest production, Glass. This physical performance had its inception in Oakland USA during Rawcus’ momentous, 2019 visit to work with Marc Brew and his company, Axis Dance Company.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 and Brew was unable to travel to Melbourne, the project changed into an international collaboration choreographed by Brew via Zoom. Glass is the result.
Rawcus describes itself as ‘A long-term ensemble of 15 performers with diverse minds, bodies and imaginations who create distinct performance work and deliver exceptional arts experiences.’
This diversity is apparent in the performance which explores, in abstract, non-narrative and physical form, themes of confinement, freedom, conformity, repetition, playfulness, contact, separation and individuality, amongst others.
Glass has less of the visual beauty and unexpected humour of previous Rawcus shows but its beauty is in its simplicity. The choreography relies heavily on contact improvisation and group, partner and solo movement exercises to create the ebb and flow of the piece.
A woman, enclosed in a transparent box, shifts and changes position, or is rolled in the box, forcing her to alter her shape and direction with each roll.
The ensemble creates patterns with straight lines and repetition. They use contact improvisation and their bodies’ own momentum and shapes to shift, realign, rearrange and travel across the floor.
They engage and repel each other, form groups and separate, or dance alone to music.
They construct piles of human bodies with the uppermost person reaching upward, an image that has faint echoes of Delacroix’s painting, Liberty Leading the People.
Heavy plastic sheeting acts as protection, wrapping or a barrier to movement. Bodies crawl under sheets as if escaping, which is unsettling. But a more alarming image is of a woman being wrapped, as if lovingly, in heavy plastic while she appears to writhe silently inside her swaddling.
Glass is a 50-minute exploration and celebration of an assortment of bodies in space that is simple but satisfying.
by Kate Herbert
Ensemble: Clement Baade, Michael Buxton, Harriet Devlin, Rachel Edward, Nilgun Guven, Joshua Lynzaat, Paul Matley, Ryan Hew, Kerryn Poke, Leisa Prowd, Louise Riisik, Prue Stevenson, Danielle von der Borch.
Creative Team:
Choreographer – Marc Brew
Assistant Choreographer – Alice
Design – Emilie Barry
Lighting – Richard Vabre
Sound – Jethro Woodward
Rawcus Artistic Director- Kate Sulan
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