Post by lloydswanton on Jul 27, 2010 17:59:02 GMT 10
NEW CONCERT VIDEOS UP ON SITE
Both sets from The Necks' memorable recent concert at Sydney's Metro Theatre, beautifully filmed and recorded by Moshcam, can now be seen on the Press Kit page of our website: thenecks.com/presskit
LOOKING AHEAD
For family reasons, we're taking a break from performing till the end of the year. Next up will be Australian dates early in the new year, with plans for Europe and North America beyond that, including further seasons of "Food Court" with Back to Back Theatre.
RECENT PRESS
Article in The Guardian by Richard Williams: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/10/the-necks
Review of London Barbican concert in The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/29/the-necks-review
Review of Barbican "Food Court" season in The Times:
The Times, London, 25 June 2010
On paper this show from the Australian company Back To Back Theatre looks unlikely to be much of a joy. A disabled woman is bullied by two girls, who then take her to the forest to deepen the torment. A boy contemplates sex with the now prostrate figure. Finally, the woman recites one of Caliban’s speeches from The Tempest. The end. Phew.
But, like the rest of the bill of London International Festival of Theatre (Lift), which it kicked off on Wednesday, this remarkably evocative production is all about the power of performance, not just text. Back for its first citywide festival for nine years, Lift’s highlights include Nevermore, a Canadian musical fable about Edgar Allan Poe (Barbican, July 6-10); Aftermath, an American docudrama about Iraqis who fled the country after the invasion (Old Vic Tunnels, July 9-17); Hotel Medea, a night-long Brazilian retelling of the myth on a boat on the Thames (July 16-31); and Oxygen, which brings together the RSC and a world- champion troupe of Russian breakdancers (ICA, July 15-18).
And if any of them is on a par with Food Court, go and see it. Back To Back is a company that works with performers with mental disabilities. But part of what intrigues about this show is that you’re not sure if the two girls are supposed to be disabled as well as the actresses. The performance is nowhere near naturalism: one cast member, Mark Deans, marks out the performance space and holds a microphone to the others as they speak. The girls, Sonia Teuben and Nicki Holland, are miked up, their lines projected behind them as surtitles. It doesn’t rush. Early on, it’s laborious.
But Bruce Gladwin, who directs and designs as well as creating the text with the cast, creates astonishing beauty out of this ugly encounter. The action is accompanied by a performance by the Australian jazz trio the Necks, whose modus operandi here, as in their own concerts, is to improvise dark ripples of sound that build to a peak over the course of an hour or so.
After a brightly lit opening section, the cast move behind a foggy screen. The figures become silhouettes. A forest is evoked with a backdrop. As coloured lighting shifts across the stage, it’s as gorgeous as an Impressionist painting. Yet this doesn’t prettify the barking obscenities of the bullies so much as create an aesthetic context for them to sully. There is no sentimentality, yet there is space for wit and hope even as you see power games at their barest. So it’s anything but theatrical muesli. It goes from slow, puzzling beginnings to something sublime. Or, rather, to something ugly, unsettling and sublime. Tremendous.
Both sets from The Necks' memorable recent concert at Sydney's Metro Theatre, beautifully filmed and recorded by Moshcam, can now be seen on the Press Kit page of our website: thenecks.com/presskit
LOOKING AHEAD
For family reasons, we're taking a break from performing till the end of the year. Next up will be Australian dates early in the new year, with plans for Europe and North America beyond that, including further seasons of "Food Court" with Back to Back Theatre.
RECENT PRESS
Article in The Guardian by Richard Williams: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/10/the-necks
Review of London Barbican concert in The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/29/the-necks-review
Review of Barbican "Food Court" season in The Times:
The Times, London, 25 June 2010
On paper this show from the Australian company Back To Back Theatre looks unlikely to be much of a joy. A disabled woman is bullied by two girls, who then take her to the forest to deepen the torment. A boy contemplates sex with the now prostrate figure. Finally, the woman recites one of Caliban’s speeches from The Tempest. The end. Phew.
But, like the rest of the bill of London International Festival of Theatre (Lift), which it kicked off on Wednesday, this remarkably evocative production is all about the power of performance, not just text. Back for its first citywide festival for nine years, Lift’s highlights include Nevermore, a Canadian musical fable about Edgar Allan Poe (Barbican, July 6-10); Aftermath, an American docudrama about Iraqis who fled the country after the invasion (Old Vic Tunnels, July 9-17); Hotel Medea, a night-long Brazilian retelling of the myth on a boat on the Thames (July 16-31); and Oxygen, which brings together the RSC and a world- champion troupe of Russian breakdancers (ICA, July 15-18).
And if any of them is on a par with Food Court, go and see it. Back To Back is a company that works with performers with mental disabilities. But part of what intrigues about this show is that you’re not sure if the two girls are supposed to be disabled as well as the actresses. The performance is nowhere near naturalism: one cast member, Mark Deans, marks out the performance space and holds a microphone to the others as they speak. The girls, Sonia Teuben and Nicki Holland, are miked up, their lines projected behind them as surtitles. It doesn’t rush. Early on, it’s laborious.
But Bruce Gladwin, who directs and designs as well as creating the text with the cast, creates astonishing beauty out of this ugly encounter. The action is accompanied by a performance by the Australian jazz trio the Necks, whose modus operandi here, as in their own concerts, is to improvise dark ripples of sound that build to a peak over the course of an hour or so.
After a brightly lit opening section, the cast move behind a foggy screen. The figures become silhouettes. A forest is evoked with a backdrop. As coloured lighting shifts across the stage, it’s as gorgeous as an Impressionist painting. Yet this doesn’t prettify the barking obscenities of the bullies so much as create an aesthetic context for them to sully. There is no sentimentality, yet there is space for wit and hope even as you see power games at their barest. So it’s anything but theatrical muesli. It goes from slow, puzzling beginnings to something sublime. Or, rather, to something ugly, unsettling and sublime. Tremendous.