Personal Political Physical Challenge
Sat, 17 July 2010, 09:19 amGordon the Optom1 post in thread
Personal Political Physical Challenge
Sat, 17 July 2010, 09:19 am‘Personal Political Physical Challenge’ is presented by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Arts Studios’ Hydra Poesis (Greek for ‘the Invincible being, creating poetry’ (?)) in association with PICA. This hour long premiere is showing in the PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street Northbridge nightly at 7.30 until the 20th July. There is a Sunday matinee at 6.00 pm.
A Master of Ceremonies (Bianca Martin) dances to an almost jungle style beat. Behind the proscenium arch, the walls, the floor and the ceiling are all black. As the mist rolls in, several characters from history can be seen dancing alone. Through the dancers wanders Karl Marx (Heath Barrett – voice Sam Fox) lost and feeling his way. This is the party celebrating the end of history. The end of centuries of idealists who have lost their way.
The proscenium ‘curtain’, actually a garage roller door, lowers.
Outside life is a different world, where under the watchful eye of Louis XIV, the Sun King, which in a reign of 72 years brought the monarchy to the absolute heights, we see a dancer (Kathryn Puie) show how this king created ballet.
The garage door goes up and we discover a young married couple (Rachel Ogle and Martin Hansen) who have found their love and affection for each other has faded, for them the world around them is without meaning, everything is now trite. They start to examine themselves, their place in society – is it justified?
They decide upon a quest for ‘reinvigoration’ and cleansing.
The absurd and bizarre appeals to them, and so through far-reaching strenuous contemporary ballet and even stomp, they cleanse their garage and their souls. In an almost McCarthy like trial, they are goaded into perilous physical challenges to work out their genuine place in society and their apparent discord.
After all their efforts, will their goals be achieved? Will the world be a happier place.
This distinctive experience in movement was directed by contemporary performance innovator Sam Fox who, in the past, has worked as the Associate Producer for ARTRAGE. He choreographed this show as a group effort with the cast, led by Rachel Ogle and Martin Hansen. The storyline is complex, with many well known anarchists from the past, right up to Jane Fonda in the ‘70s, so I hope that Sam doesn’t mind me giving such a detailed version of my interpretation, but I can assure you that this is just scratching the surface of this drama’s historical implications. Indeed your interpretation could be quite different.
This dramatic presentation introduces the inventive ‘sound art’ compositions and Korg laptop music, of Stina Thomas, member of the group Three Hams in a Can. Stina’s music is wildly eclectic, from a revolutionary rant (the ‘Internationale’) to a heart pounding rhythm and thus reflecting life in general - from classical to head butting, and from dreamlike to sizzling emotion. Often contemporary music is the title given to a cacophonous noise; here the music alone was worth being in the theatre for. It was exciting and fascinating.
The visual concept by Thea Costantino was fresh and exciting, and the lighting design (Simon Wise) complex, precise and in total tune with the music and the general theme of the presentation.
The dancing was very demanding, yes there was some totally inoffensive male nudity, but the energy, variety of genres, the pace of the troupe was nothing short of magnificent.
This is the kind of show I would love to see again, partly for a clarification of some of the actions, along with the implied themes and outlooks on society I may have missed, but mainly for the unrelenting excitement.
A truly impressive piece of choreography and performance explaining messages in life. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but of its type - Excellent.
‘Personal Political Physical Challenge’ is presented by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Arts Studios’ Hydra Poesis (Greek for ‘the Invincible being, creating poetry’ (?)) in association with PICA. This hour long premiere is showing in the PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street Northbridge nightly at 7.30 until the 20th July. There is a Sunday matinee at 6.00 pm.
A Master of Ceremonies (Bianca Martin) dances to an almost jungle style beat. Behind the proscenium arch, the walls, the floor and the ceiling are all black. As the mist rolls in, several characters from history can be seen dancing alone. Through the dancers wanders Karl Marx (Heath Barrett – voice Sam Fox) lost and feeling his way. This is the party celebrating the end of history. The end of centuries of idealists who have lost their way.
The proscenium ‘curtain’, actually a garage roller door, lowers.
Outside life is a different world, where under the watchful eye of Louis XIV, the Sun King, which in a reign of 72 years brought the monarchy to the absolute heights, we see a dancer (Kathryn Puie) show how this king created ballet.
The garage door goes up and we discover a young married couple (Rachel Ogle and Martin Hansen) who have found their love and affection for each other has faded, for them the world around them is without meaning, everything is now trite. They start to examine themselves, their place in society – is it justified?
They decide upon a quest for ‘reinvigoration’ and cleansing.
The absurd and bizarre appeals to them, and so through far-reaching strenuous contemporary ballet and even stomp, they cleanse their garage and their souls. In an almost McCarthy like trial, they are goaded into perilous physical challenges to work out their genuine place in society and their apparent discord.
After all their efforts, will their goals be achieved? Will the world be a happier place.
This distinctive experience in movement was directed by contemporary performance innovator Sam Fox who, in the past, has worked as the Associate Producer for ARTRAGE. He choreographed this show as a group effort with the cast, led by Rachel Ogle and Martin Hansen. The storyline is complex, with many well known anarchists from the past, right up to Jane Fonda in the ‘70s, so I hope that Sam doesn’t mind me giving such a detailed version of my interpretation, but I can assure you that this is just scratching the surface of this drama’s historical implications. Indeed your interpretation could be quite different.
This dramatic presentation introduces the inventive ‘sound art’ compositions and Korg laptop music, of Stina Thomas, member of the group Three Hams in a Can. Stina’s music is wildly eclectic, from a revolutionary rant (the ‘Internationale’) to a heart pounding rhythm and thus reflecting life in general - from classical to head butting, and from dreamlike to sizzling emotion. Often contemporary music is the title given to a cacophonous noise; here the music alone was worth being in the theatre for. It was exciting and fascinating.
The visual concept by Thea Costantino was fresh and exciting, and the lighting design (Simon Wise) complex, precise and in total tune with the music and the general theme of the presentation.
The dancing was very demanding, yes there was some totally inoffensive male nudity, but the energy, variety of genres, the pace of the troupe was nothing short of magnificent.
This is the kind of show I would love to see again, partly for a clarification of some of the actions, along with the implied themes and outlooks on society I may have missed, but mainly for the unrelenting excitement.
A truly impressive piece of choreography and performance explaining messages in life. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but of its type - Excellent.