Islands by caroline horton
The first thing we encounter is an island paradise of dusty house plants, dirty mattresses, an old loo and a surfeit of glitter. The space is populated by camp figures of indeterminate sex. After much settling, nodding and winking, the lights go down. Mary, bouncing on a diving-board like shelf tells us of how she enjoyed being god of her room as a teenager, and is now god of Haven. She has all the cherries.
Adam and Eve are aspirational types- Adam is a freelance gardener, Eve helps around the house; they potter around, tidy gardening mags and water plants. They want some cherries too, but they currently live in Shitworld, while Haven cruises above out of the muck.
So begins Caroline Horton’s exploration of tax havens through the allegory of Adam and Eve. The grotesque, buffon style is engaging. The songs are a riot- the performances, spot on and hilarious. The first half breezes past, but after The Fall the show loses its way somewhat, perhaps because it is so difficult to know how to resolve the issues of tax havens the end leaves us somewhat wanting. It becomes heavy handed and patronising when the allegory connects with real life incidents- like austerity. Instead of metaphorically referring to these, they are stated bluntly.
It does get very dirty- hands are filthy and minds become black with muck. The world building and performances are impressive, funny and disgusting, but ultimately the end is unsatisfying and clunky.
Da Da darling by impermanence dance
Based on Max Ernst’s 1930 collage chap-book, A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, the seven members of this Rambert trained company have each taken a page to choreograph. The result is a truly surreal and varied piece, full of intimate encounters, weird creatures and sexual strangeness.
The quality of movement is excellent; the dancers control every body part, from hand flutters, pelvic manipulation to bizarre facial expression. There is a hint of a narrative of two girls making their way through an uncanny world of sexual exploration and that is all there needs to be; the imagery is suggestible and multi-layered enough to provoke an audience’s own dream, collective and personal.
The music is brilliant and changeable. The costumes are effective, echoing the Victorian books that Ernst cut up to form the pictures, they are a rhapsody of velvet bloomers, sequinned leotards and diaphanous nightwear. Like the performance, the costumes are sexy, scary and surprising.
Each audience member was given a small card of one of the pages in Ernst’s work upon entering. I identified the dance that interpreted my image, I like to think that this was due to the clear communication of the dance and choreography. Da Da Darling is a very successful production, full of beautiful choreography presenting the nightmare- like sliding images of Ernst’s work.
The quality of movement is excellent; the dancers control every body part, from hand flutters, pelvic manipulation to bizarre facial expression. There is a hint of a narrative of two girls making their way through an uncanny world of sexual exploration and that is all there needs to be; the imagery is suggestible and multi-layered enough to provoke an audience’s own dream, collective and personal.
The music is brilliant and changeable. The costumes are effective, echoing the Victorian books that Ernst cut up to form the pictures, they are a rhapsody of velvet bloomers, sequinned leotards and diaphanous nightwear. Like the performance, the costumes are sexy, scary and surprising.
Each audience member was given a small card of one of the pages in Ernst’s work upon entering. I identified the dance that interpreted my image, I like to think that this was due to the clear communication of the dance and choreography. Da Da Darling is a very successful production, full of beautiful choreography presenting the nightmare- like sliding images of Ernst’s work.
Abacus by Early Morning Opera
Described as a parody and inspired by Ted talks and mega-church design, Abacus never quite settles. And this may not be a fault. I am fully willing to accept that I perhaps, did not “get it”.
Paul Abacus was a character invented by EMO in 2009, and unveiled to be a fraud at Sundance festival 2012. He now returns to give us this talk on unseen colours in the spectrum, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map, a world with no borders and human altruism. I think part of the flaw for me was that all of these can be interesting starts to a performance or research project. In and of themselves they are not pie in the sky hokum, so they seem a strange choice of subjects to be delivered as a parody by some crazed preacher. Paul Abacus is does deliver on the cringe stakes- he mentions Jamaica, before doing a horribly racist impression and then meekly asking if there are any reggae fans in the house. Ouch.
Then there is the impressive technical aspect to the show. There are two steady cam operators, who are dancers, filming the show on a live feed; rendered through a black and white fuzzy filter, the image of Paul Abacus spins, swirls, is tile-ated, pixleated and technologically transformed on a large screen. Does it mirror the spinning of the world that Abacus asks us to try and sense, or his mind as he apparently breaks down? No answers here- but the expensive equipment and skilled operators seem like a waste for the confused show.
I have a sneaky suspicion that the devisors of this show are genuinely interested in the content that is explored, but instead of developing it into a project that really ‘says’ something about these ideas, or connects them to any actual situation, they decided to lump them all into a bad multi-platform lecture that explores the neurosis of the presenter rather than the subjects themselves.
So, there is no clear verdict from me. It just didn’t work- perhaps because I feel that the content of the show was simply too valid and interesting to take its place in, what is essentially a stand up show.
Paul Abacus was a character invented by EMO in 2009, and unveiled to be a fraud at Sundance festival 2012. He now returns to give us this talk on unseen colours in the spectrum, Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map, a world with no borders and human altruism. I think part of the flaw for me was that all of these can be interesting starts to a performance or research project. In and of themselves they are not pie in the sky hokum, so they seem a strange choice of subjects to be delivered as a parody by some crazed preacher. Paul Abacus is does deliver on the cringe stakes- he mentions Jamaica, before doing a horribly racist impression and then meekly asking if there are any reggae fans in the house. Ouch.
Then there is the impressive technical aspect to the show. There are two steady cam operators, who are dancers, filming the show on a live feed; rendered through a black and white fuzzy filter, the image of Paul Abacus spins, swirls, is tile-ated, pixleated and technologically transformed on a large screen. Does it mirror the spinning of the world that Abacus asks us to try and sense, or his mind as he apparently breaks down? No answers here- but the expensive equipment and skilled operators seem like a waste for the confused show.
I have a sneaky suspicion that the devisors of this show are genuinely interested in the content that is explored, but instead of developing it into a project that really ‘says’ something about these ideas, or connects them to any actual situation, they decided to lump them all into a bad multi-platform lecture that explores the neurosis of the presenter rather than the subjects themselves.
So, there is no clear verdict from me. It just didn’t work- perhaps because I feel that the content of the show was simply too valid and interesting to take its place in, what is essentially a stand up show.