Intimacy.
Created and performed
by Adam Dusien, Jazida and Noa Rotem. Produced by Chenoeh Miller. A Belco Arts Production.
The Theatre. Belconnen Arts Centre.
October 22-23. 2020
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Enter the world of cabaret, of
hopes and dreams, disillusionment and fear in search of love, of intimacy and the
light that shines on the sweet taste of success. Created and performed by Adam
Deusien, Jazida and Noa Rotem, Intimacy
begs the question, “How can we find and maintain intimacy and connection at a
time of a global pandemic and social distancing that keeps us apart?”
Three performers, so very
different and yet connected through their art, reach out to each other to find
comfort and solace in a world that seeks to protect by keeping people
apart.
The setting is a cabaret room. In
the dim light one watches a woman dance, driven by impulse, possessed. One can just
make out a figure on a table and another in the smoky lighting before a mirror.
Nearby a clothes rack displays the costumes of the cabaret, the boas, the
feathers, the tulle dresses and the clothes that hark back to the era of the
Weimar cabaret. Tiffany Abbott’s costumes and set design complemented by Linda
Buck’s atmospheric lighting design conjures the mystique of Berlin cabaret. It
is there in the Martha Grahame movements of Noa Rotem before the show starts, reminiscent
of an early Dietrich she moves with the searching longing of a lost soul. Through
the dark, Kandor and Ebb’s soulful song
Marriage
from
Cabaret can be heard faintly as overture to this
carefully devised, choreographed and staged quest to bring the different
performers together.
With only six days to shape their
search for intimacy in a distanced world, it is not surprising that the cabaret,
in true tradition, focused on the individual talents of the skilled artists,
and used the time to concentrate on a very tight choreography and physicality
of interaction. Adam Dusien’s agonized lip-synched rendition of Sally Bowles’s
Maybe This Time from
Cabaret paints the painful scene of
desperate dreams. Bewitching burlesque performer, Jazida, teases and enchants with
her cheeky striptease and beautifully executed and exotic fan dance before the
mirrors.
All three tread the cautious
path towards physical intimacy, culminating in the eroticism of the shredded
leaves and lascivious devouring of the cabbage.
Less sensuous than an apple or a pear, the cabbage lends itself to the
ridiculous comedy of human sexuality.
Too drawn out is the repetition of a sequence of attraction as the
couples come together.
Male and female
climax their intimacy in orgasmic delight. Female and female discover a gentler
intimacy cradled in each other’s arms. Both seek satisfaction in the
fundamental need for human contact and intimacy.
Rotem brings the cabaret to a
close with Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, Two
Countries to remind us that “skin is not alone” and “that people go places larger than themselves”,
a sentiment that closes the show with Leonard Cohen’s haunting Dance
Me To The End of Love.
Intimacy is cabaret with heart. Three performer/collaborators take
us on a journey to reach out for the light in the darkness. Whatever loneliness
we feel, whatever desires we crave, whatever dark despair we confront this
simple, honest cabaret reminds us that we are not alone.
