Play packs powerful punch
DARK MOFO: ANIMAL Influx Theatre Theatre Royal, Hobart June 22-24
PERCHED high on a stack of containers two women crouch, prepared for whatever comes next.
Theatre makers Kate Sherman and Nicci Wilks, along with collaborator and director Susie Dee, present an unshakeable study of violence against women.
This is strong theatre: no words, just raw physicality.
Crawling down the grid that surrounds and dominates the space, the women appear to enter a domestic space. Bare-breasted and grubby, they are clearly alone, yet linked, in the ominous environment of an unseen threat. A menacing drone-like sound is ever present, as the women go about a daily struggle.
With a palette of browns, their ragged clothes wipe over cold chrome table legs and fallen chairs. Rags are their only other possessions, and these are used cruelly to torture and taunt.
A childlike motif of slowly swinging legs speaks of menace, and of determined patience; the open space behind them of potential freedom.
As each corner of their identities is cruelly chipped off, there is a violent reaction. Challenging and daring each other to toughen up, their existence is pierced by rapid-fire text sealing the open space behind them.
Trapped by circumstance, they only have each other for comfort and protection. A simple stroking gesture resets normality, but violence is never far from the surface of this troubled scene.
Powerful actions with devastating intensity dominate this work. Yet as much as this achingly disturbing imagery is thrown up, the honesty of the message prevails. This is what it takes to survive.
Sherman and Wilks are incredibly strong performers, and this is an excellent work. Thank you Dark Mofo for sharing it with us.