At Earthfall |
| Earthfall Dance- Running Away with the Hairdresser , Chapter, Cardiff , May 1, 2004 |
| Earthfall have returned from very large free open spaces to the confines of the Chapter theatre stage for their latest production. Their achievement is in no way scaled down. In fact, whilst the excitement of a strange environment may be missing, in many ways the self-contained nature of this piece was more satisfying. As ‘experimental’ theatre (if that phrase still has any relevance) goes ‘Running Away With The Hairdresser’ is almost a whole hearted return to old fashion story telling. But directors Jessica Cohan and Jim Ennis are far too canny to make things that easy; for much of the time there is a feeling of Beckett like impossibility about the whole dilemma. This is as much dance acting as it is dance performance of a very high degree of professional competence. The three girls Niamh Condron, Suzanne Firth and Charlotte Grant move beautifully and seductively and eject insinuating menace into much of the performance. Although Susan Firth has an innocent smile on her face most of the time, we know that there’s much more going on below the surface. Whilst the lines of story that do emerge give a key to the journey that Gerald Tyler’s character sets out on; at each incident the music, light and movement fuse together to produce exciting and telling stage pictures echoing film noir and other cinematic references, sometimes picked out on the black and white screen behind the action. A young lady stands at a bar, she’s talking on an old fashioned black telephone, the conversation is not going well. On the other side of the stage a man and two other women exchange looks, move chairs, connect and fail to connect. We learn that the central male character is a disillusioned doctor who has decided to seek a change of life style, or maybe he has to? He first considers a life as a contract killer! Then decides a better future lies in fleeing to France and training to become a hairdresser. Once set on this path he attempts to achieve it at great speed but then is held back by uncertainty, then moves on again. A great deal of ironic humour is created on the way. That the hairdressing ambition is achieved is indicated by Gerald Tyler wielding a pair of massive menacing scissors and using his remarkable expressive face to show us his delight in his success. There are some amazing energetic moments when the entire cast circles the stage at great speed. We all run around with them but by the time we stop no one is quite sure where or if we’ve arrived. The music becomes an additional character in the performance. It combines a score very skilfully performed on solo guitar by Frank Naughton, a recording of a string quarter from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and an enigmatic Felix Otaola as a black bereted French street singer. The compelling strength of the work strikingly emerges from the subtle fusion of all the elements, dialogue, lighting, music and movement. Each dynamic stage encounter revealing much more about the interaction and uncertainties of the human physique than simply illustrating a moment in the narrative. A totally embracing and engaging performance. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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