posted September 20, 2001 11:49            

Review
Poesia e Salvajeria
Agora de la danse Studio
September 19, 2001

Direction: Vera Mantero
Performed by: Nuno Bizarro, Ana Sofia Goncalves, Vera Mantero, Margarida Mestre, Frans Poelstra, Christian Rizzo
Music: Étant donnés, Air, Bisk, Oval v/s Main, Photek

This was the kind of show where everyone gets naked. Or at least strips down to their skivvies at some point.

The show began with a bumbling march around the circumference of the performance space, each of the six cast members wearing a mishmash of headgear that covered their eyes, if not their entire face. They bumped into audience members and prattled away to each other in a jumbled speech reminiscent of the Teletubbies. In fact, I felt like I was watching something that had been programmed for children. Until the masks came off that is. That's when the chaos started.

At this point a game erupted, and the toys strewn around the space, an exercise ball, balloons, candles, plastic swords and other assorted objects, were used by the performers to entertain themselves and/or other performers. The action developed in child-like self-absorbed states, a structured improvisation. The performers would sing together, phrases like 'central heating' or 'whole ******* thing's lost' over and over and over. Clothes were changed or discarded altogether. Candles ended up in the clothes dryer, food ended up on the performers and on the floor. Cocoa powder strewn on the floor was used to make patterns until the water that was dumped on top of it resulted in a contact-improv mud wrestling fiasco.

The antics on stage were amusing, and with six performers, there was always something to watch or someone to divert your attention. Hundreds of super balls pounded down from the ceiling at the end of the performance, a thunder of colour to finish off the game. Vera Mantero has not only left her ballet background behind, she has left dance in the dust. Or should I say in the cocoa powder.

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