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POSTED: 06 SEPTEMBER 2011

Human Interest Story, choreographed by Lucy Guerin

A Lucy Guerin Inc and Malthouse Melbourne production in Association with Perth International Arts Festival | Belvoir Upstairs, Surry Hills, Sydney | Until 18 September

Human Interest Story examines the effects of media on modern life. Shifting between movement, image and dialogue, it questions our responses to current issues and how we interpret all this information into our own lives.

Six performers in colourful camouflage parody the news they are watching on a big-screen TV by moving in time to the oral rhythms of the newsreader. They then take it further by interpreting, in movement, the newsreader, the viewer and the subjects of the reports — the death of Amy Winehouse, the Norwegian massacre and the carbon tax. All this is juxtaposed with humorous, personal, specific but mundane events that form the performers’ daily routines — physical tweeting if you like.

Later in the show, newspapers provide the stimulus and the extended metaphor. The dancers scrunch and drop the broadsheets and Alisdair Macindoe is physically distorted by the newspaper that is stuffed inside his clothing.

In the final section, the mood becomes much darker. The dancers are now all dressed in black (Paula Levis) and the work becomes totally abstracted. The pace is frantic and energetic and the gestures seem aggressively out of control as the six dancers dart across the stage evoking a sense of mayhem, which is left ambiguously unsaid. It is sombre, shadowy, and even accusatory at times.

There is little needed in the way of set design, but Gideon Obarzanek’s life-sized APC,  positioned in the wings, never referred to, but constantly referencing many issues, ultimately  becomes the elephant in the room.

Jethro Woodward’s composition mixes white noise with punk rock to allow the performers to shift from text-based scenarios to pure movement. This is interspersed with dance duets that are detailed and precise and superbly executed.

Harriet Richie compels you to watch her. She is so skilled and athletic but also so fluid, and Stephanie Lake’s stage presence is best showcased in her ability to convey comedy through dance.

Choreographer Lucy Guerin has provided a piece in which these six dancers are able to showcase their amazing strength and flexibility. She has also provided a unique movement vocabulary which combines a complex multilayered experience — visual, intellectual and sensual.

It is flawlessly performed by an immensely impressive cast, and the minimalism of its abstract framework underpins the intricacy of the experience it offers. If you want to see contemporary dance at its best, this is the one. Thumbs Up!

All images: © Heidren Lohr 2011

Alisdair Mcindoe

Stephaine Lake and Alisdair Macindoe

Stephaine Lake and Jessica Wong

Harriet Ritchie