Private View

I have had the privilege of enjoying three Restless Dance Theatre shows in the last few years – each with a distinct style and innovative use of location and space, and each delivering a strong, lingering message.

This current offering at The Odeon Norwood, Private View, is no exception. The talented creative team this time is focusing upon intimacy- sex, love and desire among individuals with disabilities. Michelle Ryan, artistic director of the company, helps us on a journey of discovery where the power of desire is stripped back, having the curtains both metaphorically and physically opened up on how it binds and drives us all.

On arrival at the theatre, we find ourselves in an open space where we can choose our seating and how we direct our attention. It is somewhat like being IN the circus ring rather than looking on. The mood is set by beautiful, targeted lighting by Matthew Adey and a fully immersive musical soundscape co-composed by “Liza Minnelli lookalike” Carla Lippis and her husband Geoffrey Crowther. Projections are also used to great effect throughout the performances. We find we are surrounded by four raised platforms, whose internal areas are blocked from view by cloth, venetians, frosted glass and curtains, respectively.

Carla Lippis soon joins us and guides us on this one-hour journey of enlightenment, and her stunning vocals and melancholic empathy for the performers enriches every moment. Ryan describes her as the “electricity”. To my mind she was the ringmaster joining all four vignettes together. She plays suggestively with the audience, inviting participation and ultimately leading to a climactic ending of celebratory dancing and tickertape messages.

The show beautifully links four scenes, which are gradually revealed to us - each tauntingly allowing us to be voyeurs into varying forms of intimacy.

The first is a delightful vignette featuring dancer Michael Hodyl, who displays amazing agility and style and epitomises romantic love - a dinner date and love letters written ‘live’ on a projection behind him.

The second space is revealed very seductively - fingers and hands dancing invitingly through gaps in blinds, eventually revealing Madalene Macera and Jianna Georgiou as two teens playfully exploring their sexual expression - joyfully drinking cocktails, snapping photos and blowing up condoms - youthful excitement abounds.

The third window is the sadder side of love - the end of a relationship - beautifully danced by Bonnie Williams, whose every movement exudes pain and heartbreak.

The final scene again jumps back into the joy of exploration, of sexting and first adventure. This scene is very playful - Charlie Wilkins and Darcy Carpenter are an absolute joy to watch as they chase each other about, constantly having their “moments” blocked by a third wheel, played by Restless teacher Rowan Rossi. His pulling them apart by separating the couch they are on and turning on the lights when they turn them off, exposes how some try to separate people with disabilities- believing they should not be intimate.

This show is tightly woven together and its ‘close up’ approach is designed to make us feel a little uncomfortable and question our perceptions of sex, love and desire among people with intellectual disabilities. It is a wonderfully smooth, empowering performance with beautiful swelling music, powerhouse vocals and wonderful dancing.

Another Restless Dance Theatre triumph.

Shelley Hampton

Photographer: Matt Byrne

Click here to check out our other Adelaide Festival 2024 reviews.