Inventory/Räumung & Umm… I… and uh… [revisited] - in London
A regathering of sorts of the GB Springdance team last Tuesday (28th) to watch Gabi Reuter perform Inventory/Räumung as part of Spring Loaded (and sharing the bill with Rachel Krische and Rohanna Eade and Bryony Perkins). Then, on Wednesday, Efrosini Protopapa presented Umm… I… and uh… [revisited] at Roehampton in SW London.
Some (biased) thoughts …
Gabi’s Inventory/Räumung was a different beast in the large space at The Place. Stripped clean of the ‘slideshow’ format in Utrecht, and presented in full, Gabi’s performance was complex, evocative and beautifully vulnerable. It bears many similarities to Efrosini’s work in its explorations of remembering, of the ‘spaces of memory’, but its execution as a danced/voiced description of the spaces of the theatre is quite distinct. It seems to operate in a more imagined place, departing from telling the ‘truth’ (in terms of things that have actually happened). It has a child-like quality, whilst retaining an intelligence and complexity that has easily handled three viewings in less than a week.
In the University theatre at Roehampton, Efrosini was a tad nervous (PhD ghosts examiners loitering in the foyer), and there was a big crowd (mostly undergraduate students writing copious notes for an essay due next week).
Susanna Recchia’s performance was virtuosic in its openness to possibilities. My interest in this work has grown (once again) with repeated viewings. I am less concerned with the puzzle—of figuring out the map or the instructions—and more able to go for the ride with Susanna on her instructed trawl through a performed past. The play between presence and absence between choreographer and performer in Umm… I… and uh… [revisited] is palpable. Who is in charge here? The conventions of structure, pace and progression are constantly undermined, and yet Susanna is utterly committed in her urgency and un/certainty to complete this performance. It is a little like she must finish it on time lest she forget all that has been before her.
Previously this work has engaged me (primarily) at a cerebral level (this is not a criticism), but on this evening I was profoundly moved by this woman’s (directed) hunt through her present/past.
Bloody good stuff.
