Battersea Arts Centre 06 -15 September 2018.
Artistic Director: Amit Lahav
Performers: Chris Evans, Anna Finkel, Amit Lahav, Katie Lusby, Ryen Perkins-Gangnes
This is a startling piece of dance theatrics and abstract artistry combined. It is all very dreamlike, even nightmarish. The movement and performance are held together by a somewhat nebulous narrative along the lines of a repressed daughter, now grown-up, who recalls her mother who went missing. The drama centres around the love and fight between the woman and husband as it was between her parents when she was a child. Where is it set? In Franco Spain or somewhere in Latin America under a dictatorship? Several languages are used in bursts and snaps – is this to represent internationality? Perhaps it is for the audience to decipher all this or perhaps the director wishes to be non-specific?
Amit Lahav explains that he is grappling with the memory of his childhood which combines the Middle East with the East End and his parent’s failing relationship:
“What do I remember of this journey? What is romanticised? What is forgotten. Missing is a reflection of these ideas – how our identity and memory interact and how central images from our childhood form major pillars in the construct of who we are.”
The senses are challenged throughout. The startling visuals comprise of light box frames, electric flashes and conveyor belts. The abstract movement and contemporary dance with Spanish influence is brilliantly executed, although at times the argument sequences, at first incredible, can be jarring and repetitive. Nevertheless, this is a performance that bewitches and transports the audience into a bizarre world of imagery, memories and emotions.
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