Cutting to the Chase

A review of new performance event ‘Clear-Cut’

 

Performing my current participatory performance work ‘Photographic Memory’ as part of ‘Clear-Cut’ provided me with, not only a platform to test out my latest idea which, as my ideas generally do, relied heavily upon the audience’s involvement, but an opportunity to support and fully appreciate the bold new works of my friends and colleagues creation, free of charge.

There was a relaxed yet buzzing atmosphere as, thanks to some beautifully designed and well-distributed advertising material, we packed out the back area of The Duke pub with an intrigued audience whom I chatted with as I waited nervously for my piece to be announced.

First-off, the audience were invited to visit a durational exploration by Sally Smithson, taking place in the enclosed back courtyard throughout the evening. In small groups, the audience could enter and observe as a solitary figure engaged with the activity of manipulating chairs using only the facets of the space, her body and a ball of string. By the time I dropped into this outdoor laboratory Sally’s investigation had produced a pile of tangled lengths of string, indicating that her current venture attempting to hang two chairs from her back was not her first and would not be her last – what had each of those lengths been used for? Despite the imaginative and delicate forms she was creating from her chosen objects, the most intriguing element of the performance was in fact her concentration, her almost disturbing focus upon the objects she was handling blocking out all perception of the audience members moving in and out of the space, the advancing darkness and cold and the passing of time.

I can’t really comment on my piece but after a shaky technical-issue-style start I got into my role as reminiscer and incessant maker of memories, armed with my new instant camera, and fully enjoyed performing, taking snaps of me and my audience members with which they made a collage. See what you think here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eF6cbN2O3U

 

Next onto the stage came a comedy act disguised as a documentary surrounding a fictitious choreographer and the creation of his latest work ‘Freedomality’. A mocking of various choreographers and their temperamental attitudes and eccentric techniques, the piece combined scripted theatre, live and filmed dance demonstrations. An interviewer questioned the choreographer through a mock video link, despite his live presence behind the monitor extending gestures that were not seen in the TV frame. Two dancers acted out scenes from the rehearsal process as the choreographer described them, including the vague improvisational audition task, the over-enthusiastic contact work partnering and literal naming of movements such as ‘air-con’, ‘freedom’ and ‘birdy’. The choreographer entered the rehearsal scenes to give instructions culminating in barking the various movement names whilst hitting the dancers with a pillow until feathers filled the stage. Perhaps some of the jokes would have been lost on non-dancing members of the audience who hadn’t been to auditions or worked with demanding choreographers but it was certainly a spectacle to watch two people throw themselves around at the demand of another as actual choreographers Sarah Vaughan Jones and Alicia Meehan bravely commented on the ridiculousness of both dancers’ willingness to please and some choreographers’ pretentious expectation of such.  

The final performance of the evening 'Serve somebody' was a visual and musical delight that also produced an uplifting final message that incidentally summarized the whole evening’s purpose as a platform for emerging artists. Singer/songwriter Anguz honestly addressed the audience whilst sat at his keyboard and explained his and fellow performer Sarah’s struggle as artists in London. He then invited each audience member to write a simple idea of how to overcome this struggle whilst he played his first song, which of course appealed to my love of participation. His hat was left centre stage for the notes to be placed in, reminiscent of a busker’s money pot whilst Sarah danced behind a white translucent screen ripped into 3 horizontal strips that reflected projected silhouette images of a waitress polishing glasses or an office worker at a desk. During the next funky tune Sarah chose suggestions from the hat and wrote them on the screen for everyone to read – above her earlier writing ‘the next step is’. Suggestions such as ‘KFC?’ were crossed out whilst ‘go on tour’ was briefly enacted and then circled. Eventually, during the final rendition of Anguz’ playful composition, Sarah cut out letters from some of the options, stitched them together using a sewing machine positioned behind the screen until, at the final few notes she hung up the word ‘temporary’, a poignant message to all the artists in the room that the struggle is not forever and there is no right next step, only a sea of continuously changing options that could lead to calmer times.

To find your own uplifting experience watch the piece here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-xadUtXidg

After all that long-winded, not remotely cutting to the chase, description, let me simply say that the evening cut through some of the underwhelming, ambiguous and rather boring new work that I have recently encountered and carved a path for daring, unconventional and downright interesting performances that I would pay good money to see more of.