VX18504
VX1850 – ATYP at Carriageworks; July 23-August 2, 2008; phone: 02 8571 9099 or www.carriageworks.com.au or phone: 1300 723 038 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
MERYL Tankard was an inspired choice as collaborator on the year’s main production with the “young people” of the Australian Theatre for Young People”. As a choreographer and theatremaker of great international reputation, Tankard’s presence at the company is immediately challenging and tells the YPs they’re being taken very seriously and should therefore take themselves seriously too.
More than that, Tankard’s preferred way of working is also challenging and unusually rewarding for her dancer-performers, when creating – or in this case, reinventing – her own work. She treats them as individuals, teases out their strengths and personalities and incorporates those elements into the work. So although this is the third (fourth?) incarnation of VX18504 since its premiere season more than 15 years ago, because of the YPs, it is unique and fresh.
VX18504 was first made to honour Tankard’s father, Sgt Mick Tankard, and men like him who went to war and came back with memories and experiences they could not share. Visual references came from photographs she saw at the Australian War Memorial by Frank Hurley and then she began exploring the idea of the origins of conflict, from the school playground right the way through to battlefields via simple, often trivial but bitter neighbourhood disputes.
The result, as played out by the company, ranging in age from 12 to 26, is probably as confronting for doting parents and younger siblings as it is thrilling for the rest of us. They ritualistically play out the cruelties of kids’ stuff, then segue into urban and military-style conflict; disconcertingly, the playground viciousness is more shocking.
In true Tankard fashion they begin with repetitions and rituals and the focus switches back and forth between the ensemble and individuals. The first half is more traditionally theatrical as they talk and chant more than “dance”, yet the choreography is uncompromisingly complex and demanding; and the results are stirring.
The second half stomps and whirls boldly into elaborate and exuberant dance to Gaelic music and the voice of Catherine-Ann MacPhee. The YPs rise to the occasion and the ebb and flow of dancers, tableaux (of Hurley’s battlefield photographs) and themes make a riveting and often moving spectacle, when it’s not ribald, funny or plaintively sweet.
The cavernous Carriageworks space is ideal for this kind of show (albeit a bit chilly at this time of year) and the set design, by Tankard and Regis Lansac (also the photographer, as ever) is beautifully sited in the “black box”. It’s a large empty open space bounded by a ratty old paling fence, a few bare trees, drifts of leaves and the watery light of winter (lighting design Verity Hampson). The costumes, by Tankard with Gabrielle Logan, bring another layer of atmosphere and visual signalling as the YPs switch from scab-kneed kids to wartime boyos and country girls.
Beyond the back fence, adding a touch of whimsy, a mob of chooks cluck, occasionally chase one another but otherwise behave as only a Tankard performer must: impeccably. They also suggest optimism, wellbeing and continuity – the qualities human beings crave and must have to survive. They are also qualities that burst from the performance through these young actor-dancers and it’s a happy thing to be in their company for an evening.
VX18504 cast: Blake Bowden, Katie Dickson, Maddalena Easterbrook, Ashwin Gore, Sarah Hickey, Belinda Jombwe, Alexandra Knox, Robyn Makhoul, Stephen Multari, Erin Nash, Marcus Pater, Barton Ware, Rachel Weiner, Jamie Winbank. Assistant choreographer Paige Gordon
