Alfred Hitchcock has already firmly established that birds are terrifying beyond doubt. So you could be forgiven for thinking that this performance may hold the same emotive core. You would be wrong, they key failure to this piece is the lacking of any sort of emotive core. What is the point in art if it doesn’t make you feel something?
Much of the audience was left without some of the essential context for understanding the production.
The piece begins with a series of phone calls from an artist looking for dancers to work with him. These phone call are in Italian (as much of the piece is) with English translations being portrayed on the screen at the back of the stage. Although there are a couple of amusing moments in this section it does drag quite a bit and you may find yourself wondering if this is what the entire production will consist of; but then relief, someone walks onto the stage. The piece then goes onto explore the overall concept of rejection along with reflections on childhood and death. This is conveyed through a solo dancer, recorded speech and music and projections. A very interesting dive into multimedia performance art.
The dancer was Stefania Bucci who although appeared a highly capable performer was not given the opportunity to show this, instead being provided with some downright dull choreography. Whenever the voiceover came on in Italian the translations would be displayed on the screen which would be ideal if it weren’t for the fact there was a dancer in front of it blocking the text regularly. This meant that much of the audience was left without some of the essential context for understanding the production. As isolated moments there were some fantastic visuals and concepts. These could be incorporated into a truly intriguing and poignant piece of work, however as a whole the performance did not manage to utilise these moments into a fully realised piece of work. What is the point in art if it doesn’t make you feel anything? I’m not sure, but perhaps this piece can help figure it out.
