Dark Side is the latest in Artful Badger’s Wild World series, a confusing anthology of shows that will leave you scratching your head. It‘s mad, it‘s beautiful and it will get you on your feet.
The play consists of four short plays. Inhospitable (initiated by Zoë Cobb) starts of the show with six women in red interpreting the struggles of daily life through voice and movement. It sets the stage for the show, haunting and appealing. The repitions become slowly maddening as it goes on and it ends abruptly, leaving the audience wondering what happens next.
What happens next is a hilarious, overly self-aware, voice over. It describes the preceeding scene and probes the audience for its reaction. That leads into Cobb‘s second piece in the play, with three dancers creating a bird themed performance. They turn predatory, with one ending dead. It is more than a little uncomfortable when the voice over returns to encourage the audience to probe the dead bird.
The third show tops the lot. Aedin Walsh‘s Skin features a woman waking up in a web, which she proceeds to explore, struggle in and dance through. It feels like a fitting culmination of the three shows. That makes the fourth and final play all the more bizarre.
Let‘s be absolutely clear. Follow The Faun is an innovative, cool and fun piece of theatre. However it is jarringly different from the previous show. In it, a Faun clad Andy Black leads the audience in an Aerobic-esque class, running after a beautiful projection and dancer. After an all female cast, it is a bit disappointing for the culmination to be a man. The Faun is a great character and I‘d love to see more of him, but his little show is a bit tagged on to the show.
Wild World is a great experience, beautiful and raw. I whole heartedly recommend it for the experience of it even if it is a bit uneven. 3.5/5
Review written by Ingimar Sverrisson.
Wild Worlds: Dark Sides is currently showing at the Vault Festival until Saturday 14th February 2015. For more information on the production, visit here…
Leave a Comment