Dining (Uns)-table

Well, look who's coming to dinner? It could well be you. This was an interesting and affecting piece of performance art which defied categorisation; incorporating audience-participation, multi-media, improvisation, absurdism, dance-movement and mime, which all combined into one great big, surreal euphemism.

The setting is a dinner table. Cloé – the convener/guest of honour at this unusual little shindig - appears to be in the midst of a psychotic episode, and selected audience members are invited to be the warm props around which she pings her physical and psychological angst. The beauty of this style of work is that while the over-arching theme was obvious and universal (the fractured relationship between Cloe and that evening's randomly-selected 'Papa') her interaction with her guest 'cast members' seemed designed to eke a subjective emotion within each participant. Painstakingly executed movements and parodies of some classic 'acting-out' behaviours had a delightfully visceral effect.

As one of the 'lucky' audience members selected (only to be later rejected) I found the experience both amusing and confronting. That said, audience involvement still seemed to lack any genuine feeling of risk-taking to fully justify its inclusion, making some moments seem uncomfortably clunky. The deceptively structured narrative also involved some elaborate set-ups which seemed only to chew time. However, sharp lighting and sound FX, teamed with nostalgically-filmed sequences gave the required depth to make this piece truly involving. Cloé's undoubtedly compelling enfant terrible represents the vulnerable, damaged child within us all.

Rose Cooper

Featuring Director/Choreographer/Performer Cloé Fournier,
 Dramaturg Michael Pigott,
 Media Artist/Composer Imogen Cranna,
 Lighting Designer Guy Harding.