This triple-bill evening was one to remember, each show completely different to the next; The Place’s festival for new choreography continues to do what it does best – let the latest ideas of emerging choreographers run wild.
The Parallel Gap by Ophey Chan
The Parallel Gap. It is a space, a time, a being.
There is something trapped in there. Someone? Growing, that thing is. Is the struggle to contain it or to let it out? The wrestling stops, the bubble rips (figuratively and literally) and I cannot tell - am I on the outside watching in, or are we inside it all?
This piece has an uncanny ability to switch perspectives, make us feel both enormous and miniscule simultaneously. The sheet of bubble wrap is now strung from the ceiling, and I feel it pulsating. The room changes. The movement on stage bobs along with the thing, lifting, lowering, oscillating. I shift in my seat, contained by the workings of the macro-verse around me, and watch as the five dancers become one. Images of protests around the world flood our eyes. The surrounding movement is secondary to the message. The takeaway is not to look at a pretty sculpture - it is a call to action, and not a subtle one. A genuine question: how we can exist together, using our collective voice for change, for good?
Tyranny of King Edwards by Chevron Edwards
Is she laughing or crying? With a potato as the main character, I tentatively should think it to be the former.
It may feel forced to center an entire performance around a single potato - I, too, was skeptical. There was something unnerving about the setting, perhaps the blurring of serious and hysterical – it was almost made to not be taken seriously from the moment it started. Feeling unsure about what I was watching, my mind was to be changed. With an engaging plot, a dynamic pace and well-suited narrator, the performance moved unexpectedly and satisfyingly. Laughter and crying were blended with all the emotions in between, where this physical theatre cocktail of dance and comedy increasingly established what it stood for as time progressed: to make potatoes grate again.
An abundance of props and masterful clowning filled the stage when appropriate and the audience’s laugh urge the protagonist to go further. A piece that stands out from any genre, it unequivocally converted me to its highly original delivery by the curtain call.
Roulette by The Vril Project
Would you ever play Russian roulette?
The Vril Project’s choreography piece unlike any other, a rare treat to anyone who got to witness it and a hard task for any reviewer to capture.
As a concept that blends violence into movement, dancing while fighting, the concept of “russian roulette” takes on a whole new persona in this work. The arena, or the stage, was explosive even when it was still. The perfect synchronicity screamed power. The characters were compelling, the ensemble perfect cast. And the rage displayed on stage was a highly satisfying experience. Clever lighting choices and detailed dramaturgy made this work engaging at every turn and hard to look away from while one got lost in the trance of club music. Each of the seven dancers disappeared into their roles, fighting for their lives at every moment of this work, much the audience’s entertainment. And as the crowd favourite for the evening, the Roulette players were met with a roaring applause after playing the game for us.
Show title: Chevon Edwards, The Vril Project and Ophey Chan
Venue: The Place
Review date: 14/01/2025
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