Review: Structure and Sadness

Structure and Sadness
Malthouse Theatre and Lucy Guerin Inc
25 November 2009
Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse

A contemporary dance about the 1970s collapse of a bridge in Melbourne; who would have thought it! Fortunately for us, Lucy Guerin did, and if you missed Structure and Sadness at the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival, or its various performances around the world, you’ve got until Sunday.

Words are not necessarily the best way to tell our stories. Guerin’s beautiful dance captures the emotion of a story and lets her audience breath in the hope and the pain until it is indistinguishable from their own.

Even if most who were in Melbourne in 1970 can tell you where they were when they heard about it; some under 40s might have to be told that 35 men died when the when a section of the West Gate Bridge collapsed when it was being built. This is a story that is so much a part of Melbourne, but fading into history rather than recollection. Even with instant media and an internet full of records of events, stories are still forgotten and need telling.

Guerin’s telling isn’t about facts, but a response to the momentary nature of disaster and its far-reaching effects. It is neither cringing “aussie” or alienating foreign, but connects with everyone who has seen and felt the sudden loss of life in a place where people should have been safe.

The inevitability of collapse fuels the tension, as the dancers build a sprawling timber house of cards. Their dance too is structural, but always shows the contradiction of bodies that can fluidly bend or remain rigid and strong. Despite all anticipation, the collapse is room stilling and the dance becomes more personal as the mood changes and the rebuild begins.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: On Ego

On Ego
Red Stitch Actors Theatre
22 November 2009
Red Stitch Theatre

Mick Gordon and I would argue to the death over many of the issues discussed in his theatrical works; which is why I’m beginning to really love his On Theatre creations.

Gordon dramatises contemporary debates. Earlier in the year MTC gave us Grace (On Religion) and Red Stitch close their year with On Ego. Gordon wrote Grace with philosopher A C Grayling, and On Ego was a collaboration with neuropsychologist Paul Brocks, whose book Into The Silent Land explores what makes ‘meat into mind’; how the ‘awesome’ behaviour of neurons in the kilo and a half of meat in our bone box head makes us believe that there is something unique and worthy called ‘I’.

Whereby I felt that Grace was trying to lecture me about the impossibility of God, On Ego (despite including a genuine lecture) questioned and doubted the logic of fact and reveals how even the most firmly held beliefs can disappear the instant they are truly put to the test.

Alex (Dennis Moore) lectures that the brain is a story telling machine and our concept of self is just a story, but he is slapped by his own convictions when his wife Alice (Andrea Swifte) has a brain tumour and he is replicated when a routine teleport goes wrong. In a world where science fiction is fact, the dilemmas reveal the depth and the shallowness of their beliefs and, more importantly, make the audience question what they would do if faced with the same situation.

Creative industries thrive on the uniqueness of individuals – engineers and two-dollar shop owners don’t invite the opinion of reviewers. So On Ego is a fascinating and ironic exploration of the concept of self. By embracing the lecture and soapbox aspects of the work, Red Stitch’s production gently draws us into the thoughts of the characters; thoughts that contradict, support and dismiss their beliefs.

On Ego doesn’t ask us to take a side, but makes sure that we try to make a decision about what we would do if we had risk the loss of ourselves.

I don't think I'd press the green button.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

What's on this week? 23 November

What's on this week? 23 November

Africa
My Darling Patricia
Malthouse Theatre
Malthouse commissed this one, which runs until 29 November.
I loved it.

Short and Sweet
Chapel on Chapel
You never know what will turn up
Week One, Top 30
Short and Sweet reviews 2006-08

On Ego
Red Stitch
It's rare to see a dud from Red Stitch.
Until 19 December.
review

Structure and Sadness
Malthouse Theatre and Lucy Guerin Inc
This premiered at MIAF 2006 and won a stack of awards.
Short season, 25-29 November

Review: Africa

Africa
Malthouse Theatre and My Darling Patricia
14 November 2009
Tower Theatre, CUB Malthouse

When a show opens with a baby’s head in a microwave oven, you know you have to keep watching.

My Darling Patricia use puppets, design and performance to create the most evocative and original images of Australian urban existence. They see the epic in the most mundane and leave us unsure if the world they expose is beautiful or horrific.

The Tower theatre is draped in children’s linen, covered with characters and colour and faded by love. I didn’t see my washed-til-it-was bare Paddington Bear quilt cover, but there was a pink Pierrot with a frill that I would have coveted at seven.

This Africa isn’t savannas and safaris, but filled with things that we hope define and protect childhood: toys, games and the consistent belief that life is already good and going to get better, despite the horrendous bumps that happen along the way.

Inspired by a true incident, it’s the story of a Courtney, her best friend Cheety and her little sister (played by puppets). On a not unusual night, when they are given a packet of chips and the TV while her mum goes out with her latest man (real adults), the kids discover Africa and plan to escape.

Under the veil of whimsy and nostalgia, My Darling Patricia reveal the murky reality and desperate yearning hidden in the back rooms and porches of our suburbs. Although we don’t approve, we accept a bit of drunken promiscuity and lax supervision from a young mum who hasn’t had the best life, but our hearts break when she finally sees the violence of her boyfriend; not because she is alone, but because she won’t let him give the kids his Christmas presents (even a drunken, skinny bogan Santa can bring great presents). If there were a hat to whip around the audience at that point, the collection would have bought Courtney the best karaoke machine on the market.

Africa was developed in a Malthouse Tower Theatre residency. I can’t say enough good about this program that lets independent companies develop and perform to a larger and receptive audience.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Fire: a retrospective

Fire: a retrospective
Bangarrra Dance Theatre
6 November 2009
The Arts Centre, Playhouse

Hands up if you can name Australia’s internationally revered national contemporary dance company. How Aussie that, after 20 years of consistent achievement, Bangarra Dance Theatre isn’t always given the respect, the support and the adoration it deserves at home.

Not that the audience at Fire didn’t adore. Far from it. Being in that cheering audience was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve had in a theatre. It’s humbling to be with a crowd who are thanking the creators and performers for telling stories that all members of the diverse audience understood felt were theirs.

I like dance, but it’s like a foreign language and I’m often left admiring the pretty and the skill as I wonder what they are trying to say to me. But I totally get Bangarra. I watch this company perform and I know what they are saying to me. It might not be what they created it to say, but that doesn’t matter. Bangarra tell their stories by expressing the emotions of moments. We fill in the rest.

Under the artistic directorship of Stephen Page, Bangarra’s merge of traditional and contemporary is fluid and natural. There is no straight line in nature, no unison or perfect repetition. Random patterns are why it’s so hard to make anything artificial look natural. Bangarra’s choreographic style is precise, but there’s never unnatural unison. The slight differences between each dancer’s performance creates a stage that seems more natural and more in tune with how we are.

Bangarra’s originality flows from welcoming ancient white ochre ritual and encompassing Torres Straight Island celebration through to the a gorgeous use of elastic to create a stage full of cat’s cradle like song lines and the most awesome and sexy use of a slip ‘n’ slide. But the moments that remind us that our Indigenous culture is more than gum leaves and roo dancing are the most powerful.

Four men in jeans dance to a spoken Lord’s prayer and the voices of those who need to be heard in a piece about alchoholism, violence and abuse, and there’s a room silencing moment when a scratching, screaming woman finds relief in the horror of drugs. It’s not only in the arts that Australians suffer and are ignored for ‘cultural’ reasons.

At a time when far too much media and dinner party conversation was spent justifying the Aussie joke of black face and John Safran’s Race Relations is creating a mighty hoo ha on the telly, it’s a perfect time to go to the theatre to be part of a history, a vision and a contemporary dreaming that we are all part of.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com