FESTIVAL DANCE | Reviews
PARADISE LOST (LIES UNOPENED BESIDE ME) Brilliant dance theatre ode to the clumsy and crushing art of creation ●●●●●
For many a graduate of English literature, the idea of anything based on Paradise Lost sends shivers up the spine. It seems outrageously ambitious to turn it into a work of contemporary dance theatre. But there isn’t a scrap of arrogance here, and Lost Dog’s one-man piece distils Milton’s lofty, allusion-packed poem into beautiful parcels of everyday life with intelligence and huge compassion for anyone who has ever tried to create anything.
Throughout the show, performer (and creator) Ben Duke gets under the skin of this bizarre human urge, giving us God and Lucifer the home-makers, sharing the anxieties of parenthood, and tenderly sending up the way we embellish ourselves when faced with someone we want to impress. His God starts out with all the clumsiness of the optimist, an innocent who has never known failure when he bustles about the stage thumping together heaven like bits of clay. Later, his take on establishing flawed humans through a well-meaning Adam, who ruins his own entry dance, is brilliantly heartwarming.
If this makes it all sound too gentle and whimsical, it’s not. By humanising God, Duke offers us a mirror to our own failures when it all goes wrong. He gives us the chance to collude in creation too, inviting us to use our imagination when chickpeas fall from the sky in lieu of boulders, and by the time he builds to a sobering climax – the vision of Adam and Eve’s future blending with contemporary allusions – you can see it, and it is crushing. The scale of Duke’s ideas is overwhelming, yet he sews them
together so deftly you could be listening to a friend tell an anecdote; it is a remarkable piece and makes Milton’s tale feel more immediately relevant than a literature lecture ever could. (Lucy Ribchester) ■ Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 24), 2.40pm, £12 (£10).
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360 ALLSTARS Hit urban circus puts all-male spin on all things round ●●●●●
PROJECT HAHA Disappointing show from absurdist troupe ●●●●● K’RD STRIP Evocative and original cabaret-plus from Maori’s gay community ●●●●●
Rotation is the name of the game in a sporty production that brings together athletes, acrobats, dancers and musicians. Directed by the Australian percussionist Gene Peterson, the slick package is billed as urban circus. Accurate, given that it’s a chance for hip hop culture to rub shoulders with Big Top skills. What’s more, as a piece of uncomplicated popular entertainment for all ages it seems to work a treat, with a full house responding enthusiastically to all that was on offer. Just about everything in the show has something to do with roundness, whether it’s the oversized Cyr wheel inside which Australia’s Rhys Miller spins; the globe-like objects deftly manipulated by America’s Basketball Man (yup, that’s his name); the head pirouettes and full-bodied floor work of Kareem and Leerock, b-boys who respectively hail from America and New Zealand; the tyres upon which the Hungarian BMX Flatlander champ Peter Sore executes his tricks. The rapport between the men is pleasantly palpable, although it might have been interesting to see at least one or two women invited into this all-male preserve. (Donald Hutera) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 31 Aug, 4.15pm, £15–£16 (£13–£14).
58 THE LIST FESTIVAL 20–31 Aug 2015
Remote Control’s last offering at the Fringe, La Donna è Mobile, was definitely a Marmite piece. But even though that haphazard take on femininity and madness divided audiences, there was no denying its originality. It’s a shame then that in their second work, rather than building on the strength of their imaginations and harnessing that with a bit of direction, the gro up has chosen to do the opposite. Project HaHa starts promisingly. A woman dressed in yellow, blissfully content, starts a sequence of whispers around the audience. ‘You’re in the best seat,’ she tells each of us. It’s an invitation to smugness, an indicator that what’s to come might be a spiky dissection of the dark side of happiness. Instead we get her swirling about the set murmuring ‘cool’, while another woman slides on the floor – handily dressed in black in case we were in any doubt as to what she might represent. Eventually the pair pop coloured pills and zone out. Everything feels slow and meandering, and short on material. The final ten minutes have more visual intrigue, but not enough to rescue the piece from its determination to be weird whatever the cost. (Lucy Ribchester) ■ Summerhall, 560 1581, until 30 Aug (not 24), 7.50pm, £10 (£8).
Performed by six Maori gay men, this production from New Zealand’s Okareka Dance Company is genuinely original. Although placed in the Fringe’s cabaret section, the mix of song and dance routines, scripted and spoken word text and an emphasis on characterisation means the show would’ve been suitable almost anywhere except comedy. That’s not to say that the performance doesn’t evince a sense of humour, but it also carries its weight as an unconventional theatrical drama. The title is a reference to Karangahape Road, an avenue in Auckland infamous since the early 1970s as a hang-out for misfits. The cast play an assortment of characters, from hookers and victims to a homeless person. It’s a landscape of loneliness, quick violence and fleeting connections. From this central location the performers branch out into music and dance, notably featuring the glaring eyes and extended tongues of haka culture as well as pleasing vocals. Most amusingly, they also pretend to be preening birds in search of sexual fulfillment. The overall result is somewhat rough round the edges, but all the better for it. (Donald Hutera) ■ Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 31 Aug, 6.40pm, £14–£15 (£13–£14).