February 29, 2012
\nAdelaide Festival <\/p>\n
Malmo
\nTorque Show
\nPresented by Vitalstatistix Theatre Company
\nin association with Adelaide Festival
\nWaterside, Port Adelaide.
\nFebruary 28. Tickets : $ 25 – $35
\nBookings: BASS 131 246, adelaidefestival.com.au
\nUntil March 4. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a house, it\u2019s a machine for living\u201d the bright young couple exults, \u201cIt is a 3D mirror of who you are.\u201d Malmo, a dance theatre work devised by performers Vincent Crowley and Ingrid Weisfelt, along with director Ross Ganf, takes a long, often comical look at the social ritual of home renovation. <\/p>\n
The audience is in promenade in the vast space of the Waterside Workers Hall. Taking up and putting down our little stools, we are led through imaginary rooms as our eager hosts \u2013 he in waistcoat and black slacks, she with neck scarf, striped top and mustard trousers \u2013 elaborate feverishly on the particulars of their home creation. <\/p>\n
To illustrate their comments we are referred to our individually supplied copies of Malmo, a droll, wickedly concocted satiric send-up of any number of lifestyle and architectural magazines, which has chosen their house for its monthly feature. The design accents are Scandinavian, of course, and evoke the familiar consumer paradise of the flat pack and the Allen key, but as they rhapsodise fatuously about \u201crooms for the imagination\u201d we realize they really believe their own mantra that \u201cyour house says – Me Me Me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Interspersed with the cheeky send-up of interior narcissism, the performers lucidly choreograph their changing moods \u2013 from the breezy harmony of their project-based universe-of-two to their rapidly deteriorating emotional decline as the renovation becomes mired in disagreement and falling morale. As Nick Roux\u2019s brooding, inventive sound design rumbles beneath us, the dancers lying on the floor entwine as angry lovers and unquiet sleepers, and their child joins them in the roiling agitation. It is a powerful, disconcerting and recognizable image and memorably highlights what the production has to say about how easily we can get lost in the details and the clich\u00e9s of domestic nirvana. But its impact is not sustained and developed. Director Ross Ganf and his collaborators need to craft a greater fluency in their narrative \u2013 or at least find how to move more emphatically from their satiric intentions to the stronger emotional kick.<\/p>\n
Some of the segments could be dispensed with (including, perhaps, the final one) and the excellent dance elements highlighted more. The audience logistics also need simplifying – we will be moved more, if we are moved about less. This is a work of originality and promise, an intriguing series of entertaining set pieces. But, in its present form, Malmo falls gallantly short of its own grand design. <\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
\u201cRenovators\u2019 delight doesn\u2019t quite bring down the house\u201d The Australian, March 1, 2012, p.15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
February 29, 2012 Adelaide Festival Malmo Torque Show Presented by Vitalstatistix Theatre Company in association with Adelaide Festival Waterside, Port Adelaide. February 28. Tickets : $ 25 – $35 Bookings: BASS 131 246, adelaidefestival.com.au Until March 4. \u201cThis is not a house, it\u2019s a machine for living\u201d the bright young couple exults, \u201cIt is a 3D mirror of who you are.\u201d Malmo, a dance theatre work devised by performers Vincent Crowley and Ingrid Weisfelt, along with director Ross Ganf, takes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17,5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23","category-adelaide-companies","category-archive","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}