Red | Dancenorth

Visually captivating and confronting, Red by Dancenorth positions the audience as voyeurs and gives us a view of bodies writhing and struggling against an increasingly hostile environment.

QPAC’s playhouse theater had been transformed to seat the audience on either side of a large, clear inflated bubble. The atmosphere was tense and encouraged a sort of reverence from the audience right away which I really enjoyed. There were people either side of me trying their hardest not to rustle too loudly, or whispering very quietly to their friends. It signposted the tone of the show well and let us know that we were going to see something beautiful.

All images: David Kelly

There would probably be a different interpretation of Red's story for every individual who sees it but I felt, initially, like I was viewing something alien. The two dancers (Marlo Benjamin and Michael Smith) were not only physically separated from the audience, but visually their pink cotton pajamas, blank faces and bright red hair served to separate them further, making them seem otherworldly in their plastic enclosure. 

As the lights went down the audience on the other side of the bubble disappeared completely and the dancers' moves were initially controlled and robotic. They were sitting intertwined and as they moved they evoked the image of a plant growing and twirling up a stake in a timelapse video.

The dancers continued to paint these really vivid images for me while moving through such an abstract piece and those images kept me really engaged even though I haven't seen many contemporary dance works. Every time they moved to the opposite side of the bubble their reflections warped up and away from them in these kronenberg-esque brush strokes of pink and beige and red. The reflections were paired with the occasional glimpse through the bubble to the audience on the other side when the lights were bright enough, and it made the plastic feel so alive and gave it breath.

As the bubble began to deflate around the dancers and they started to interact with it, I felt less of that alien distance that I had at the beginning of the work. At the beginning the dancers seemed to be completely in their own world, a world that I didn't have access to. But as they began to struggle with the plastic around them they seemed more human to me, I felt the pressure as they moved in less and less space.

All images: David Kell

Red's beautiful dancers, living set and haunting soundscape symbolised to me how being at odds with, or disregarding, your environment leads to pain and struggle. I felt sympathy for the dancers as they progressed under a heavier and heavier sheet of plastic. Perhaps because of the otherworldly-ness I mentioned earlier, I had some difficulty connecting their struggle to a universal experience of environmental decay. This isn’t to say that I didn’t find the work thought provoking, I just don’t know if I would have naturally connected the story to my world or my experiences with nature if I hadn’t known anything about the show. 

That being said, the final image of the show was perhaps the most confronting. It lingered and encouraged me to sit with the feeling of it. It's a final statement of the show that was clearly meant to be seen in person, not read online. Being presented with a challenge like that was invigorating and I hope I get to see more work that engages the audience in that way.

‘Red‘ plays at QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre from 29 March - 1 April 2023.