Image: www.performinglines.org.au
Stories reach out and interweave as Gunn examines a simple-seeming situation – a woman, running by a canal in Belgium, pauses to stretch her legs. She sees a man, with two small children, throwing rocks from the side of the canal. Looking closer, she sees that he is aiming at a duck sitting on the bank. She wonders whether she should intervene, or carry on with her exercise before composing a self-righteous Facebook status about the incident.
Choreographed by Jo Lloyd, Gunn’s discourse never stops as she continuously moves around the stage. Lying on her back with her legs describing metronomically hypnotic arcs as she considers the potential outcomes of arguments, rolling over slowly while discussing the value of therapy in adulthood arising from childhood trauma and angular tweaks and twitches accompanying her thoughts on motherhood and animal rights, as well as the compulsive pelvic thrusting as she climbs through the audience as the frustrated duck, the movement never stops except to create a pointed tableau. Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster is a multifaceted delight that is a stunning performance from every angle. If this one woman show is a monologue then it is wise and witty, engaging and delivered in an enthralling manner. As a creative dance piece, the movement is consistently compelling, with energy levels constantly high. As a synthesised electro pop music experience, it is unique. As a philosophical rumination on a moral conundrum, it is a doozy.
Simple as the starting premise seems, the telling of the tale takes on its own life with a sheer profusion of words tumbling out over each other, delivered as Gunn moves around the stage with movements that are simultaneously dynamic and disconcerting. Her contemporary dance movements enhance the delivery with a sense of meaning beyond the words, and yet not a single random element is wasted, each moment of mad digression, even the detail of David Suchet’s recovery time from a heart operation, is food for later musings. The perspective of the woman, who is an artist, is explored, with small details hinting at more to her story than the initial simple presentation. The potential impacts on the children, watching the man and handing him more rocks to throw. The background story of the man, an Algerian migrant, and his myriad motivations for his actions. The voice of the duck, disturbed by rocks as she incubates her eggs, returns time and again to put the human constructions of the world into context.
Technical design aspects are crucial to the development of the work, allowing the increasingly complex text to bloom into a synthesised electro pop music extravaganza. Niklas Pajanti’s lighting design and Martyn Coutts’ AV design together reflect the story’s complexity, a stark white lighting up the stage and then pastel shades splitting the performer’s silhouette, becoming stronger in colour before the shades of colour and narrative meaning implode on themselves and violet wedges of light become the main visual feature while Gunn takes to the microphone and ghetto blaster to “sit here, and wait for a while”. Similarly, Shio Otani’s costume design moves from a simple summer outfit of shorts and sleeveless blouse to a fantastic outsized kimono creation of many colours that rises and falls under a floral arrangement head dress. Kelly Ryall uses sound design to builds from silence with the artist’s voice to a beat box that punctuates the incessant movements, to complex layers of beats, tones and vocal stylings that fill the performance space.
Written description fails this work miserably. Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster is an extravagant remapping of the boundaries of performance art. Combining the personal with abstract theories, details of a moment captured with reference to overarching philosophies, artists and their work critiqued and juxtaposed with the situations we come across in life generally, political statements casually thrown into the telling of stories and flashes of perfect comic timing – it is a privilege to witness Gunn’s creative artistry. Manic yet measured, Gunn’s piece of performance art makes the most of each moment and movement to create a memorable moral journey.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster
Presented by PICA, Mobile States and FringeWorld
Text, Direction and Performance: Nicola Gunn
Choreographer: Jo Lloyd
Composer and Sound Designer: Kelly Ryall
Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti
Sound Engineer and Operator: Nick Roux
AV Design: Martyn Coutts
Costume Design: Shio Otani
Dramaturg: Jon Haynes
Production Manager: Emily O’Brien
PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre
13-19 February 2016
A Performing Lines production
