[2013061] Another Point of View
AfterDark Theatre @ The Birdcage
6:00pm, Tue 26 Feb 2013
A curiously lyrical précis for a circus piece attracts me to Another Point of View, and initially I had flashbacks to the first show I saw at The Birdcage this year: after the house lights drop, the stage lighting is… well, low. Dim. But there’s (just) enough light to make out a trunk at the back of the stage, from which limbs appear in a strange dance.
Eventually two women (Jacinta Rohan and Vicky Aisha Blackthorn) extract themselves from the trunk – an impressive bit of contortion, now that I think about it – and start awkwardly wandering around the stage. They’re clearly friends (or sisters), but they communicate only through looks and small gestures; and despite the implied familiarity of the two, there’s also a tension present.
The circus elements of the performance are contemplative and refined; there’s a lot of balance and stretching routines that border on the impossible, but maintain a sense of elegance. And while the aerial hoop routine is decent, the hula hooping is flat-out amazing – one of the best of its kind that I’ve seen in years.
In between the (relatively infrequent) circusy bits, there’s a few narrative bits that, whilst almost dainty, somehow extend the idea of intimate friendship between the two; most involve the performers watching old “talkies” on the telly or engaging in some more menial balancing. But there’s also a really clever piece where they both eat breakfast cereal with spoons held by their feet whilst laying on their stomachs… go on, try it. It’s silly to look at, messy thereafter, but a gigglingly fun thing to witness.
There’s some really wonderful bits in Another Point of View – the women are clearly very talented, and some of the humour-imbued narrative interludes were quite clever… and that’s before I consider the sapphic overtones of the piece. But the torporeal pacing sadly left me feeling like it was an exercise in style over substance; as beautiful as the generated mood was, the audience was left to wallow in it for far too long before being presented another piece of… well, interest. What’s there was good… it’s just that there were too many points where I was given time to realise that I was not being engaged.