Created and Performed by Susan Bamford Caleo and Elissa Goodrich
At La Mama Courthouse Theatre
Virtual Season: Apr 5 - Apr 19, 2022
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Review of live recording on Friday 1 April 2022 at La Mama Courthouse Theatre, Carlton
Stars: ****
This review published only on this blog. KH
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| Unravel_Reckoning_L-R: Susan Bamford Caleo, Elissa Goodrich, pic by Darren_Gill |
Unravel_Reckoning is a wrenching reinterpretation through voice, physicality and percussive music, of the story of Medea, the ancient Greek woman, sorceress, wife and mother who murdered her own children when her husband, Jason, married a younger woman, a princess.
The most famous version of Medea’s gruesome story is the Ancient Greek play by Euripides, but this performance, created and performed by Susan Bamford Caleo and Elissa Goodrich, has no linear narrative thread.
Instead, it uses an eclectic blend of physicality, text, vocal and percussive sound to evoke the story and catastrophe that is Medea. Bamford Caleo vocally and physically embodies and expresses Medea’s ‘unravelling’ as she experiences her grief, love, loss, abandonment and ensuing revenge.
The 45-minute performance is an eccentric duet, a conversation in sound and movement between percussionist, Goodrich, and singer/physical performer, Bamford Caleo whose vocal acrobatics echo, mimic or complement Goodrich’s evocative percussion that features vibraphone and untuned percussion instruments.
Bamford Caleo fills the theatre with her otherworldly vocal and physical presence in an intense, provocative, tortured and sometimes earnest performance that incorporates vocal experimentation with sound, song, poetic text and sung or spoken lyric.
She prowls around the space like a caged animal, searching, plotting preparing her revenge and wallowing in her grief and rage. She cries out in a lament to the skies as if seeking help from the Gods.
In a state that alternates from volatile and menacing to poignant and emotional, Bamford Caleo’s singing shifts from pretty and lyrical to aching, wrenching and emotive. The performance is sometimes slow moving like a creeping lava flow, then surges into frenetic, painful movement, voice and sound.
The whole piece is held together by its style and form, its eerie quality and the light touch of director, Margaret Mills.
Unravel_Reckoning is a compelling, impassioned and inventive work that brings new perspective to the ancient tale of Medea, the abandoned older woman who grieves as she seeks revenge.
by Kate Herbert
Credits:
Created and Performed by Susan Bamford Caleo and Elissa Goodrich
All original music and music arrangements – Susan Bamford Caleo and Elissa Goodrich
Directed by Margaret Mills
Lighting Design by Gina Gascoigne
Textile Art by Pamela Isaacs
Stage Managed/Operated by Amber Hart
Technical Assistance by Jaala Jensen
Video Recording and Online Production by Ruiqi Fu
All original text, music, and all music arrangements – by Bamford Caleo and Goodrich.
References text & music:
Jacques Brel / Rod Mckuen – ‘If You Go
Away’
Cole Porter – ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye’
Traditional – ‘Sinnerman’ (after Nina Simone)
Traditional – ‘Hush Little Baby’
Jay Livingston / Ray Evans – ‘Que Sera Sera’
Bjork– ‘Unravel’
Gian Menotti – ‘Black Swan’ (after Nina Simone)
Shriekback – ‘Only Thing That Shines’
Tom Waits – ‘Make It Rain’
Shriekback – ‘And the Rain’
Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer – ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’
Euripides ‘Medea’
Eve Ensler – ‘The Apology –“Dear Mother” ’
Heiner Muller – ‘Medeamaterial’
Ursula Le Guin – ‘Don’t Take me For Granite’
Christa Wolf – ‘Medea’
Judith Wright – ‘Woman to Child’
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