MELBOURNE - ANIMAL
ANIMAL, Influx Theatre at Theatre Works St Kilda, 17–27 November 2016. Photography by Piers Carthew, above and below - Kate Sherman and Nicci Wilks
You only need to look at Animal’s assembled creative team to know you are in for a “shocking” night and it begins as you enter. The lighting (Andy Turner) is dim and there are meditative bells lulling you into a feeling that quickly becomes unease.
The set (Marg Horwell) is a vast space with disused inflammable plastic drums crated and piled high adorning the edges. Strung across the lofty ceiling is a net dotted with birds’ feathers, it is reminiscent of a disused warehouse. Two grubby girls (Kate Sherman and Nicci Wilks) wearing only nondescript underpants, are perched high, focused, readying for the kill, their stillness drawing you in long before the house lights go down.
Animal is an important piece of theatre dealing with domestic violence and abuse. It is a collaborative work by Wilks, Sherman and Susie Dee. Dee, yet again, shows us how gifted she is. Her direction is compelling, putting the performers through an hour of high-level physical language that both distresses and provokes, pulling the audience along and taking us on the troubling ride. Dee has an eye and a guiding hand that creates profound theatre.
The equally brilliant sound (Kelly Ryall) is loud, discordant and then shifts into melodic and kitsch. When the Last Waltz is played as the two girls do an evocative dance for their perpetrator you want to laugh but hold your breath instead. You get to know the perpetrator’s sound and your body tenses along with the girls.
Animal was performed at a frenetic pace and it struck me how exhausting living with sexual violence must be – constantly on edge, listening, waiting. We witness moribund prayers before meals that are the precursor to a night of sexual abuse. These two young girls are united through this abuse, stuck in the cycle of violence, growing up and becoming violent to everyone around them including each other. There is no reprieve.
As animals in the wild jostle and fight to the end to be leader of the pack, so too do humans when they have been degraded to the point of having nothing else to fight for – even their “pact” goes begging. Horwell’s use of aspects of the set for an awful purpose comes out of left field and heightens the tension even more.
At intervals throughout the show there is projected text (text and dramaturgy Angus Cerini), accompanied by loud music, they are the only words and they hit home. MERCY…
Animal is a very physical piece and Sherman and Wilks, who are no strangers to physical theatre, are certainly up to the task: their work is brilliant. It couldn’t have been an easy rehearsal period with this topic but they do it great justice.
Sexual violence against women is far too prevalent and, even at the end, after the deserved applause, you are not let off easily for the lights remain dim and the unsettling music continues as you leave. This show is a must see.
And if you feel so inclined, Influx is running one-hour self defence classes in conjunction with Animal. Check the website – Influxtheatre.com – for details.
