Directed by:
Chenoeh Miller
Lighting
Design: Hartley T.A. Kemp
Sound
design: Dane Alexander
Performers: Erica
Field, Alicia Jones, Ruby Rowat, Peta Ward
Presented by
Little Dove Theatre Art
Courtyard
Studios, Canberra Theatre Centre, 3rd – 5th December 2015
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Described as
“a live art work” Chenoeh Miller’s creation, “Evangeline”, as presented at the
first preview last night, defies easy categorisation.
Drawing on elements
of Japanese butoh combined with psychological and philosophical references,
Miller has created an extraordinary performance exploring reactions to grief, which offers an aural, visual, and if you’re
game, even a tactile dimension to an extraordinary
theatrical experience.
The
experience commences on arrival at the Courtyard Studio when audience members are
ushered into a disco-like environment complete with pumping music, jabbing
coloured lights and smoke haze, where in a small defined stage area, two women,
both in bright red costumes, one with her back to the audience, the other
facing the audience with head downcast, perform endless repetitive gyrations or
spasms to the music.
There are
wooden tables, with boxes spread around for the audience to sit on. Cocktails
and hors oeuvres are on offer, and the audience is encouraged to move around
and observe the performers from different angles.
Eventually
two more red-clad women enter through the audience. As they reach the stage
area, all the performers face the audience and in addition to repeating the
movement already established, all begin contorting their faces into grotesque expressions
of grief, bewilderment or horror.
From time to
time the music changes, but the gyrations and spasms are repeated relentlessly,
until finally the four women simultaneously fall to the ground and lay
motionless.
Eventually
they rise and stand in a bewildered, trancelike state, until members of the
audience feel the compulsion to comfort one or other of them.
Then, simultaneously,
they raise their arms above their heads and slowly leave the stage, leaving their
audience in awe of their bravery and endurance, perhaps moved, bewildered or puzzled,
but certainly not ambivalent.