wyvern:extra
The origin of love
Review of
Tmesis presented by the Momentum Theatre Company at the Lakeside
Theatre
By
Lucy Traube
Tmesis sets out to tell the story of the origin of love
and how we search for our other half. It explores the idea of love between
two people evolving from hermaphrodite creatures and plots the change from
animalistic love to human affection.
There were three performers in this production, two represented the
hermaphrodite creature and the third played a God. The God sat on a white
platform and manipulated these creatures to stop them thinking and feeling
for themselves.
For the majority of the piece we saw just this two-headed creature
moving, entwined in one another, they introduced human qualities as the
piece progressed. The dancers showed an acute understanding of the
movement of animals and the cohesion between the two main dancers was very
good. There were elements of humour as the creature scratched and prodded
at the others body. However, although the movement was good, at times it
felt like we were watching an exploratory rehearsal and not the final
performance.
Two rectangles of light became the focus of change from animal to human
and provided some of the more poignant moments when the two embraced,
clinging to each other as the God tried to gain control over them.
With strong movement skill, I felt the piece lacked strong enough
emotion to keep the narrative throughout the piece. The audience was left
watching lengthy moments of stillness. This felt like a ten-minute piece
stretched to an hour.
