Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Four stars
If you believe
the elaborate fable told from a storybook between acts during this greatest
hits compendium from Edinburgh’s live art cabaret extravaganza, the night’s
roots stem from the early 1980s. In their boundary-pushing diversity, some of
the acts actually do recall what used to be called alternative cabaret during
that era. Either way, the eight bite-size performances culled from the last
five years of speak-easy one-nighters revealed Anatomy as key players in the
city’s ever fertile artistic underground.
Hosted by
Anatomy founders Harry Josephine Giles and Ali Maloney, the show opened Rosa
Postlethwaite’s tellingly named Without Whom We Would Not Be Here Tonight. Lewis
Sherlock followed with The Undercog, in which Sherlock shadow boxed with funding
bodies. In Sanitise, Jordan & Skinner choreographed the domestic excesses
of cleaning a toilet with wordless wit, while in Uranus, Moreno Solinas sang arias
to illustrate sexual need.
The second
half opened with Palimpsest, The Cloud of Unknowing company’s furious anti-consumerist
mini explosion of noise, dry ice and crazed choreography. Xelis de Toro calmed
things down with Until the Cows Come Home, in which one man in search of
himself follows the call of a cow bell.
It was the
final two works that were most affecting. It’s Not Over Yet saw Cultured
Mongrel Dance Theatre’s Emma Jayne Park act out a bittersweet comic meditation
on being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphona. Finally, in SEX – SEX – SEX, Sara
Zaltash gathered some of the audience into a circle for a ritual purging
involving Zaltash incanting cut-up lyrics of classic love-lust pop songs in the
dark. Illuminated only by body-paint, she pleaded with the audience to discuss
and challenge every line. Both performances were fearless examples of a night
that dissects body, mind and soul in devastating fashion.
The Herald, May 14th 2018
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