Created and
performed by Eliza Sanders
Presented
by: House of Sand
QL2 Theatre
– Gorman House Arts Centre,
Performance
on 25th April reviewed by Bill Stephens
A former
Quantum Leap dancer, Eliza Sanders has spent the last three years studying in
New Zealand. While there she developed “Pedal.Peddle” in which she combines contemporary
dance, cabaret and absurdist theatre forms, and which she performed in Canberra
as part of curated residency at QL2 Dance.
Into a space
strung with clothes lines, a small figure emerges carrying a large suitcase and
wearing what appear to be all her worldly goods wrapped around her body. She
begins to chant a mantra to remind herself where she has hidden her keys, money
and mobile. As she remembers more items to add to the list, the mantra becomes
more convoluted and hilarious. She unpacks some of the contents of her
suitcase, pegging on the clothes line an assortment of photos and newspaper
clippings (memories perhaps?) and eventually an assortment of bras. Then she pulls from the suitcase an old pair
of tights, which she pulls over her head and morphs, surprisingly and
hilariously, into a large chicken which scampers around the stage.
 |
| Eliza Sanders |
The effect
is mesmerising as the audience is drawn into an ever more surreal and funny
world. The multi-coloured cloth around her body becomes a huge lizard-like
tail, and eventually a beautiful flowing train. Through-out all these
revelations Sanders recites existentialist
poems and sings unaccompanied songs in a sweet, compellingly clear voice,
sometimes to herself, sometimes directly at the audience. Many more such
moments occur including a lovely sequence involving a conversation with a
mirror masquerading as a pool of water.
Eventually
she emerges, almost naked, from the flowing costume as if from a chrysalis,
moving confidently around the stage, until the mood darkens, and she returns to
the suitcase, removes a large paintbrush, and slowly and deliberately proceeds
to paint thick black lines over her body, sometimes using her mouth to
manipulate the brush. The effect is unsettling and strangely beautiful.
What to make
of it all is left to the imagination of the individual observers, but the
journey is infinitely fascinating,
absorbing, compelling, hugely entertaining and beautifully executed.
This review was first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 26th April 2015