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| Jack Riley and Alexander Hunter photo: Andrew Sikorski |
Choreographed
by Jack Riley
Sound
designed by Alexander Hunter
Lighting by
Nick McCorriston
Ralph Wilson
Theatre 7 – 9 September 2017
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
“Fuse” is
the first of three offerings in the 2017 Ralph Indie 2017 program. The Ralph
Indie 2017 program supports artists to develop and present new performance
works, and encourages innovation, experimentation and cross-disciplinary
investigations.
In creating
their purposely ambiguous work, dancer Jack Riley and sound artist and
composer, Alexander Hunter have set out to “explore the possible
(dis)connections and relationships between sound and movement, light and dark,
dominance and subjugation, interiors and exteriors and reality and fantasy”, drawing their inspiration from sci-fi and fantasy
films and books as well as Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology.
According to
their program notes they approached the project with no preconceived ideas of
content or structure, simply utilising objects found in the space when they
arrived. And that’s exactly how it looks.
A promising sense of mystery is established when a figure
(Alexander Hunter), wearing a dark boiler suit and welding mask, enters pushing
a trolley on which appears to be a bubble-wrapped body. Leaving the trolley, he moves
to the side of the stage, sits on a stool and commences to play a series of
strident chords on the cello. Slowly the body on the trolley begins to move and
unwrap, revealing Jack Riley, dressed in a white boiler suit, who sets about ceremoniously
transferring a set of metal
cylinders from the trolley onto a white
cloth at the side of the performance area.
Once this
task is completed, Riley removes the trolley, and then takes the bow, cello and
stool from Hunter. Hunter leaves the stage and from then until the final
section, a moody recorded soundscape the
activity.
A harsh white
light reveals a wooden platform leaning against the wall. Riley performs
several running and sliding manoeuvres on the platform, before ceremoniously
cutting a cord with scissors to set off strip lights which pulse wildly as he performs
some impressive spinning movement on the floor.
While a
voice-over intones a poem, he wheels a set of steps onto the stage, and spins
them around before placing a mirror on them. Hunter re-enters, walks up steps
to the mirror while Riley rewraps himself in bubble-wrap, and as the lights
fade, slowly pulls the cloth containing the metal cylinders to the centre of
the stage.
All this
mildly interesting activity takes about 30 minutes with each member of the audience
drawing their own conclusions as to the symbolism. From the little actual dance
contained in the piece, it’s obvious that Riley is a talented dancer, so it’s a
pity he didn’t use this opportunity to explore that talent rather than
indulging in the pretentious claptrap he presents here.
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 8th September 2017
