STRUT Dance, "NEXT", #thatwomanjulia
Kynan Hughes, Love/Less
Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre, 19 September
The Farm, Cockfight
Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre, 19 September
The second week of Western Australia's MoveMe Festival included a double bill pairing of local independent work from Kynan Hughes and STRUT Dance, and a visit from Queensland-based company The Farm.
Hughes’s new full-length work Love/Less was programmed with #thatwomanjulia (with Yilin Kong's Blushed presented on alternate nights). With no built sets, both works were performed in the round and the intimacy and proximity to the dancers added another dimension to the experience.
Just over 10 minutes in length, #thatwomanjulia opened the program, on the night viewed. Created by Sally Richardson and Natalie Allen, directed by Richardson and well-performed by Allen, #thatwomanjulia aims to “unpack the mythology” of then Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s 15 minute reply to Tony Abbott in parliamentary question time in 2012, which called out the misogyny, sexism and bullying to which Gillard had been subjected.
Referenced in the printed program as her “infamous question time response,” #thatwomanjulia is played as farce and is set to a soundscape that includes fragments of Gillard’s reply. Setting the tone, Allen wears a bright red wig, pantsuit and high-heeled shoes (which she later loses) as she powers about the space. The frenetic, exaggerated movement style and mimicry were difficult to reconcile with the work’s premise.
Love/Less was choreographed by Hughes in collaboration with the dancers Marlo Benjamin, Rachel Arianne Ogle and Alexander Perrozzi and was skilfully lit by Joe Lui. Triggered by the loss of his father, Hughes uses intense, abstract dance to effectively unveil a world of nuanced emotions within experiences of intimacy, love and grief. An empathetic electronic sound design by Sascha Budimski includes recorded voice.
Hughes’s clear ideas and meticulously crafted movement produce many beautiful moments. Stillness in held positions creates sculptural images. Regret, wariness and longing are apparent with one dancer often as an outsider, standing and observing a loving duo from which they are excluded. Occasional exquisite trios see the three entwined, and each also dances alone. Benjamin was sinuous, strong and dynamic, fitfully throwing back her head and arching her back; Ogle revealed elongated, long-limbed lines and an achingly-stoic presence; and Perrozzi’s slow expansive, sweeping movement seamlessly spiralled into hesitancy in this sixty-minute, engrossing new work.
The Farm’s Cockfight was created by Kate Harman, Mark Howett, Julian Louis, Josh Thomson and Gavin Webber and performed by Thomson and Webber. Aptly described as “The Office mashed with a cage fight” and a “crazy blend of theatre and dance,” its 70 laugh-a-minute running time flies by.
It all takes place in a dated-looking office with a desk, white board, transistor radio, corded phone, and metal filing cabinet. Ego-driven power struggles relating to age – Webber is quite bit older than Thomson – height differentials, superior leg-length and rank in the pecking order are catalysts for much mayhem and merriment.
The two concoct a shamelessly unsubtle ploy to break through the fourth wall and talk to the audience, and “Josh” and “Gavin”, as they introduce themselves, certainly know how to work a room. Their dialogue is sharp with split second timing and arguments over the superior wingspan of the oldest Sooty Shearwater birds, and a “voice quote” from a Shearwater bird, hilarious.
Ape-like noises are a ruse to leap about outrageously, literally climbing the walls, and throwing blank sheets of paper provides an opportunity to create bizarre face-masks. Formidable feats of combative strength using furniture, props and walls abound. Slow-motion wrestling, and skilled, smooth, controlled counterbalancing was mesmerically beautiful to watch. The magical, memorable voice of Yusuf/Cat Stevens singing his 1970 song "Father and Son" was a lovely touch. And there was so much more.
Go and see it, if you haven't already and have the chance.
- Margaret Mercer
Pictured top: Alexander Perrozzi (front), Marlo Benajamin (middle) and Rachel Arianne Ogle (back) in "Love/Less".