Firsts is ROH2’s annual showcase of emerging talent intended to bring new artists and audiences to the Royal Opera House. This second of three programmes featured three separate shows.
Rarely do rope acts leave you wanting more but Ockham’s Razor’s Every Action playful interactions, on a lengthy rope strung over two pulleys, is a delight. Two men, medium and large , two women, medium and small, cleverly use their body weight to counterbalance each other as the rope becomes two parallel cordes lisses or a cloudswing for them to perform on. Innovative, skilful and funny, it is simply perfect.
Sally Marie seems to have had a difficult time of it and whether her piece The Extra is autobiographical is uncertain. It includes mime, spoken word and though it’s a long time coming, dance. She has the expressive face of a Modigliani model and when she gets round to dancing, her movements are quite lovely. The rest of The Extra - which ends with her threatening suicide from the top of a piano - has a real sense of poignancy but is also rather strange.
Steven Hoggett’s Dalston Songs is inspired by the stories of Helen Chadwick’s diverse neighbours and concerns the notion of home. It is sung a cappella by Chadwick, Hazel Holder and Melanie Pappenheim, who have some fun with harmony, intonation, facial expressions and gestures. It is as if they are chatting in song as they sit or move around a table. Photos of London’s Dalston taken by Holder and John Lloyd Davies are projected behind them, giving an extra flavour of the place they all call home.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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