ABOUT OTHERS
Q Theatre, The Vault, Auckland
02/10/2019 - 03/10/2019
Production Details
About Others
Created by Caitlin Davey
People are messy and complicated and beautiful and generous and different and interesting. People cannot be categorised, but still, intolerance of ambiguity in others has always existed. It feels like the rise of intolerance is the mark of our times. Listening to other groups of people, especially those most different from us, and especially when they are in pain, has never been more important. It is the only solution. Created by Caitlin Davey (Fabricate), this work is a call to arms to do just that.
Post-show discussion // There will be a post-show discussion following the Thursday 3 October performance facilitated by a leader in the arts sector.
Director: Caitlin Davey
Producer: Sarah-Louise Collins
Dramaturg: Nisha Madhan
Performers: Adam Naughton, Ariaana Osborne, Marianne Infante
Set and Costume Design: Tara Davey
Lighting Design: Paul Bennett
Improv , Dance ,
1 hour
Immersive, unique dance experience
Review by Nicole Wilkie 03rd Oct 2019
About Others is a participatory dance work which allows the audience to become a part of the choreographic process. Walking into the performance space, I see a sheet of white paper covering the entirety of the floor, and a number of white boxes piled against the sides of the space. Throughout the work, the audience are given simple voice-over instructions, which they are instructed to follow when they hear them. We are quickly brought into the performance space, which is perhaps anxiety-inducing for some, yet exciting for others. As the work progresses, people seem to relax and become more open to engage fully with the instructions given. We are invited to write on the floor, to change our position in the room, to pick where we would like to stand. The audience is given times to sit back and observe the dancers, while at other times we are given autonomy to change our experience of the performance by changing where we are in space.
I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to view dance from different angles as we were asked to move about the space and lie down as the dancers moved around us. It is so rare that we get an opportunity to be as immersed into a dance work as this. The movement material begins in a pedestrian manner, which allows for audience participation, and evolves to a greater level of complexity as the show progresses. Two dancers move in-between and around the audience while another performer draws lines on the floor, connecting points in space, perhaps creating landmarks for the dancers to reference in their movements. Much of the movement is gestural in nature, bringing to mind ideas about how we interact with each other socially, which I think is fitting for this work.
It is evident that some clear thought has gone into how to instruct the audience in a way that is not forceful yet effectively creates the desired effect. About Others offers something different to any other work in the Tempo Festival line-up, and I would highly recommend this show to anyone who is interested in a non-traditional dance experience.
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