Lina Limosani: A Delicate Situation -
The Space, Adelaide Festival Centre, 22 May -
Lina Limosani’s new work, A Delicate Situation, explores the human tendency to respond to death by personifying it. What marks the work as unusual is its cross-cultural references, and its evocation of colonial power struggles. In her program notes, director and choreographer Limosani tell us that the work was inspired by the Malaysian myth of the Pontianak, a vampiric figure who is believed to be the wrathful ghost of a woman who died in childbirth. Essentially dance theatre, A Delicate Situation uses puppetry, dance and acting to convey a narrative about a woman facing death.
The eerie mood that dominates the piece is set up by the opening scene. Long swathes of white material are draped across the stage, covering some large objects and parts of the floor. To Hardesh Singh’s thunderous soundtrack, the material starts to snake across the floor like water, until a long white dress emerges and is lifted high over the centre of the stage, looking like a spooky bridal gown. Gradually two grotesque white hands, with incredibly elongated fingers, emerge from the armholes, and start an agitated hand dance, eventually gathering up the dress to expel a white plaster head, as if giving birth to it.
The mood changes dramatically with the material being pulled off stage to reveal furniture, and the entrance of a woman dressed at the height of 1950s fashion. Carol Wellman Kelly carried off the role of the narcissistic, pampered Caucasian woman, forever preening in front of the mirror, re-applying her lipstick and checking her nail polish, with terrific skill. Malaysian dancer Suhaili Micheline Ahmad Kamil was exceptional as her slavish maid, moving with a razor-sharpness while keeping her face impassive.
The interplay between mistress and maid, which starts with Ahmad Kamil silently anticipating her mistress’s every whim whilst remaining virtually invisible herself, evolves into a battle of wills in which the mistress is reduced to the maid’s puppet. Eve Lambert’s set, consisting of some ingenious items of wheeled furniture with fold out screens, is manipulated to great effect in this battle, as are a set of plaster heads, which, as they are swapped interchangeably with the heads of Wellman Kelly and Ahmad Kamil in a witty sequence, become essential props in the power struggle. Wellman Kelly is subjugated in the end, and, forced to accommodate herself to death in the form of the head—literally, a death head— attempts to charm it, but her coquettish simpering is interspersed with juddering and trembling that give away her barely-concealed terror.
The final scene features a duet between Wellman Kelly and a white ghost-like figure suspended from the flies by wires. Initially this is empty drapery manipulated by puppeteers Lisa Lonero and Alexander Knox, but Ahmad Kamil as a deathly figure or ghost later inhabits it, perhaps. Their duet features some beautiful images; at one point the long drapery is used to great effect as a screen for some shadow play. Wellman Kelly is now completely in thrall to the death figure, and the final moment sees her completely encased in death’s embrace.
This is an accomplished work, with design, sound and choreography all working seamlessly together to create an eerie atmosphere, and it demonstrates that Limosani has arrived as an original theatrical voice.
- Maggie Tonkin