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The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME

The Arches, Glasgow
4 stars
Glasgow International’s performance related strand this year speaks volumes about where artists are at right now. As its centerpiece, this GI commissioned thirteen-hour epic on the intoxicating but fleeting power of fame, created by performer and collagist Linder to accompany her Kings Ransom (Hybrid Tea) exhibition at the Sorcha Dallas gallery, makes for a beguiling sensory whirlwind. Made in collaboration with composer Stuart McCallum, costume designer Richard Nicoll and a roll-call of dancers, musicians and DJs alongside a core cast of seven, it’s a hypnotically raw experience that explores the intoxicating and corrupting allure of glamour, taking in the transcendent ability of dance in all its participatory forms, from jumping jive to Northern Soul.

Divided into twelve hour-long acts, a low-key introduction by the most graceful of Muses promenades us through a multi-faceted underworld where a female King is woken by a Witch while eternal wannabe Puella Aterna tries in vain to join the party. These first three hours are Kenneth Anger for girls, with all the lysergic magic of that most bacchanalian of directors intact. Only when the Muse adorns the Star with a totemic gold lame jacket do things really kick in.

With three drummers and a trumpeter adding thunder to McCallum’s post-rock guitar soundscape, what emerges is a pop fairytale turned rock and roll suicide. The second half allows individual performers to get into a groove and strike a pose, with Linder herself appearing sporadically like some gimlet-eyed Prospero in fetish-wear. With Tom Pritchard and Rosalind Masson making a gorgeous Star and Muse, you don’t so much watch, but are bewitched, bothered and bewildered in equal measure.

The Herald, April 26th 2010

ends

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