OZYMANDIAS, presented by First Physical Theatre and the John Allen Project (dance, main, Alec Mullins Hall, tomorrow – Saturday at 2pm and 7pm):
Reviewed by Leon Muston, Arts Editor
IF there’s one thing that can definitely be said about this Grahamstown-New Orleans collaboration, it certainly is different.
It’s a multi-media production, with interviews with the cast members and other individuals projected on screens while two sets of dancers perform scenes linked to what is being discussed on screen.
Based on Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, the production comments on issues related to empires, statues, death, memories and legacy.
One set of dancers are clad in brown, while the other set are just in their underwear, with their skins whitewashed.
Those in brown provide the main action, with the ones in white providing support.
To start with they are dancing in and out of wooden crate-type objects which get stacked up to make buildings and statues.
Later with the brown-clad dancers moving freely, the white-washed dancers keep bringing strange jars filled with sand and childhood objects on to the stage, representing memories, and presumably, the sands of time.
Meanwhile tragedies such as September 11, Hurricane Katrina and the civil war in Zimbabwe are being discussed on the screens.
It’s thought-provoking, but it’s so unlike anything else I’ve ever seen, it’s really difficult to comment on the actual quality of the show.
But if you are on the look out for something a little left of centre, this is a definite possibility.
Tags: dance review, grahamstown, hurricane katrina, john allen, new orleans, ozymandias, poem, september 11, shelley, zimbabwe
