The Sydney Morning Herald - January 2008
Charge of light brigade
The Sydney Morning Herald, Arts and Entertainment, Reviews
By Jill Sykes
January 2008
The choreographer Gideon Obarzanek and his technical team have created a seductive, intriguing piece of entertainment in Mortal Engine. The title reflects the dancers’ role in igniting the technology to project a sound and light show; the way they move, which can vary in each performance, triggers what the audience sees and hears.
The laser designs are bold and beautiful – especially the concluding sequence that brings viewers into the vortex of its tunnel of underwater green that changes shape from swirling clouds to walls of light that a dancer can put a hand through.
Robin Fox is the laser and sound artist, and Frieder Weiss designed the interactive system.
There are no pre-recorded video, light or laser images, and sounds are generated from movement data, or, in some cases, phrases already composed by Ben Frost. These phrases are triggered by the dance action or by an operator responding to where the dancers are positioned.
The lasers cover the broad Drama Theatre stage with swirls and squares that grow, shrink and tumble with hypnotic rapidity or stretch out like three-dimensional architectural projections. There are also more intimate lighting effects that surround the shape of one or a group of performers – these are the ones that remind us that, although the process is so fascinating and the visuals so engaging, Mortal Engine does have meaningful themes.
The dancers perform on a steeply ranked white square that can be divided and lifted to act as a wall. Mostly their action is floor-based, which allows them to be picked out in white light or shadowed in black. This sets up contrasts that can become conflicts, giving tension to solos in which strong body language suggests inner turmoil and duets that illustrate the give and take of relationships or, in one case, the darker self in the form of a hooded figure.
Kristy Ayre, Sara Black, Amber Haines, Antony Hamilton, Lee Serle and Charmene Yap performer with athletic intensity, generously giving up their individuality to the cause of overall impact.
This teamwork has produced an engrossing work that has developed a long way from Obarzanek’s earlier venture into this area, the solo Glow, seen in Sydney last year. It may not be the future but it’s an invigorating present.