Sacha Copland and Tristan Carter have a created a work called The Emperor’s New Clothes. It consolidates their long standing creative partnership with Java Dance Theatre. They have developed a unique and sophisticated modus operandi that incorporates choreography, text and sound. They are compelling performers and their complicité is one of the work’s greatest strengths.

It is a dense and complex work and easy to get lost along the way. Copland is brave and fearless and exposed – stark naked for a large section in fact.

The first part of the performance where Copland’s ‘prototype’ body is exhibited as an asset is intriguing. It is at times deliciously absurdist and clever theatre, although incessant repetition weakens the impact.
How the beginning of the performance connects/sits with the latter sections of the work is not clear, including the multiple changes of costumes.

Inevitably rhythms which create: a section of text followed by musical interlude, then repeat become predictable and a lot of the movement loses interest after a time.
Less movement and/or a broader range of somatic investigation as well as greater attention to the placement of phrases in the space,  would strengthen the work choreographically. 

Large tracts of text are strong and well delivered as are more poetic sections which hold resonance. Dramaturgically the screws need tightening.

Ultimately I am left asking why was the piece created? Was it in essence to tell the very personal story which is left until the end?  If so why is it placed behind all of the detailed material that precludes it? Could there be a simpler, less frenetic way to tell this story?

Copland admits her need for incessant physicality and an addiction to adrenalin, she has found her ‘drug’ of choice in this kind of theatre where the stakes are high and the audience is invited along for the ride and the exhilaration. 
Is the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ aspect of this artist’s work, that there is in fact a gaping void that can only be fulfilled in this performance setting? Or is the universality of her story and the need for all of us to be seen ‘to exist’ an imperative that drives her work? 

Either way The Emperor’s New Clothes is a committed and inventive performance that will linger in the memory banks.

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