© Johan Persson © Kevin Clifford 'Echo and Narcissus' reviews Tattersall in reviews recent Cathy Marston reviews 'Eros-Eris' reviews recent Liz Lea reviews 'Sea of Bones' reviews Fong in reviews recent Mark Bruce reviews more Bruce Marriott reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

One's aware that a lot of grown-up thought has gone in but there seems a working assumption that those who see it will be up there too and fully equipped for some major decoding of what's going on and analysis of the theme - seriously grown up stuff... but alas I'm not!

Echo and Narcissus is Marston's latest piece before she heads off to direct Bern Ballet and it would have been nice to be more positive, given the Bon Voyage. It's a complex piece with custom score, integrating opera singers into the action with two dancers and mixing live video back into the performance. For me the score was purgatory, seeming to blend Schoenberg with moments of Chinese operatic percussion and singing that was similarly playing with off-keys. It was also sung in Latin and English though only once did I catch a word I could understand ("Echo" rather appropriately!). The opera singers are young and dancer-fit so in that respect it looks and works well, as does Jenny Tattersall as Echo - but then she could dance anything and provide enjoyment. Sadly though there is not very much of Marston's free-flowing choreography to be seen: just two dancers and the singers noodling about take their toll on what's possible.

I didn't know the Echo and Narcissus tale and the A4 sheet given out just before the performance came too late for me to read. So I sat there, as you do, waiting to get the message and be entertained. I got zippo sadly. It's as if all the thought that recently went into Marston's Ghosts, and made it something you could follow and understand, regardless of background, has been forgotten or just abandoned. The only thing I know about Narcissus is that he loved himself but if this was conveyed it was very subtle. It also seemed odd that Narcissus should be wearing such a terminally dreary costume that did nothing to flatter him. The whole piece appeared to be on a higher level than anything as mundane as the obvious stuff people might know. I could go on but this clearly was not my 'cuppa-tea'. It was, though, the best piece on the evening by some considerable margin.
 

Australian Liz Lea's Eros~Eris opened the night at the Linbury and while she cuts a dash as a dancer, particularly in a beautiful Martha Graham stretchy black dress, her choreography seemed unimaginative and tedious. The piece was supposedly about Empedocles' view on the cosmos, love and strife. It could just have easily been based on a dull episode of Home and Away for all I could see. The steps seemed very ordinary with little original tone but it included some snatches of ideas from elsewhere - a Maliphant lift here, a few Forsythe clapping forearms there were notable bright spots. Although Lea's CV would indicate otherwise I had the distinct impression of a hastily-put-together workshop piece by a young dancer and not something that would ordinarily benefit from a custom score, live musicians and the cost of projected digital graphics plus their 'digital choreographer' driver. For much of Eros~Eris I contemplated what would be the best way to get from the fourth row of the stalls to the bar for a much needed stiff drink soonest.

Round at the Place I had a much better time seeing Mark Bruce's Sea of Bones. Like the other pieces this had had money spent on it and looked assured and polished. Similarly there was a playing with mythology but this was Mark Bruce's trip through the subconscious world of dreams both ancient and modern rather than an attempt to bring some remote Greek tragedy to life. Precisely what the hell it was all about is less clear to me but in the event this didn't matter at all as I basked in such fun imagery as a bleakly drunk wedding, the love life of a second World War GI, dancing Cowboy girls at a Pagan sacrifice (severed heads everywhere), sex and odd cabaret acts to music as diverse as Scarlatti, Tom Waits, Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey. Even if one scene didn't resonate there was another along sharpish in a surreal cavalcade like the dance equivalent of Shooting Stars.
 

In delivering his vision Bruce has a crack team of dancers, including the wonderful Joanne Fong and Eleanor Duval, who can deliver anything from wildly flailing bodies to tender love duets - so clinging and real they almost morph into straight acting. I also loved a section where he arranged 5 girls across the front of stage, all in their separate worlds, at first barely twitching to the music and then becoming ever more absorbed and outrageous in their excited, dreamlike response to its quickening pace. But there are lots of mesmerising cameos. Marian Bruce did the excellent designs and I'd really love to see it again. On tour through to the autumn, this is recommended.