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Australian Dance Theatre 'Devolution' Her Majesty's Theatre Fri 3 March There's little doubt that 'Devolution' will be described as a tour de force in any assessment of Garry Stewart's time as Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre, largely because as a piece of work it is indeed... forceful. It is also a fully collaborative piece involving choreography (Stewart), video montage and projection (Gina Czarnecki), robotics (Louis-Philippe Demers) and sound (Darren Verhagen. To my mind it is the dance which comes off second. If 'Devolution' is to be described as a masterpiece I rather suspect that is because it seems a triumph of form over content, and one which melds these forces in art together in a story of merged technology and humanity. The question is whether it's a successful melding or an uneasy alliance. The first thing which cannot be escaped is the industrial pugilism of Verhagen's score - it is relentless over the course of some 65 minutes, and when the crescendo is reached the audience is quite literally shrunk back in their seats under its assault. This is not comfortable dance; this is confrontational and aggressive stuff. Intentionally so. The lights are intrusive, marvellously so, and the robotic 'creatures' shine and flash as part of the set dressing. The moving spots, hydraulically caged, are a brilliant focus for the industrial motif, against which the more cumbersome robotic devices seem, well, a bit naff, really. A host of mechanical 'crabs' clank and chatter onto stage then flash their lights a bit before being hoisted aloft. It's all a bit 'Will Robinson'. And the dance? It's solidly spectacular; muscular and violent. The beginning is jerky and strangely insect-like, becoming more animalistic as the robotics intrude onto the stage. The interaction between the human dancers and the robotics is cursory, however, save in the case of mechanical whips lashed to two of the dancers, and appears under explored. In some ways the highlight is the wonderfully decaying videos of Czarnecki, projected onto a scrim at the front of the stage, and this illustrates the ways in which Stewart sought to have 'Devolution' overturn - to reverse - the norms of dance. In conclusion therefore, the curtain does not come down on the action; instead the scrim is raised. 'Devolution' is another 'must see' performance from ADT because of its intentions, rather than what it actually achieves.  |
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