Speechless

Toni’s grant application (for something undoubtedly very artistic) is refused.  Toni is so stunned that she is, well, speechless.  But undeterred, she contacts Sara (whom she has never met) far away in Rome and invites her to join the project.  It’s a project, Toni asserts, that ‘is going to make millions’.  Sara likes the sound of ‘millions’, but otherwise exhibits not a shred of comprehension of Toni’s project – and we’re not too sure what it is either.  Possibly Toni herself hasn’t quite got it worked out herself.  Sara decides it’s what she’d like it to be, something else entirely, and in which she is thrilled that she will be ‘the pro-tag-on-ist’.  Thus begins this witty and original work that combines words and dance, English and Italian.  (I confess the last was lost on me, but I’m told Italian speakers get double the fun with jokes in rapid fire Italian.)    

Speechless is a short but very entertaining piece about communication – or miscommunication – and the slippery, unreliable nature of words.  It’s a sign of the piece’s intelligence that it goes further than that.  If Toni and Sara fail to communicate, it’s not because communication is impossible or that neither really speaks the other’s language.  It’s because neither one of them ever really checks out the other’s idea of what the project is.  Neither of them tries to explain nor investigates the other’s understanding.  Instead, locked in their own versions of reality, they struggle, they frustrate each other, they exhaust themselves.  They are at cross-purposes throughout.  This gives the piece a certain pointed relevance to contemporary life.  Toni is a wordsmith, but her efforts consist of lists of words, some of which she then directs Sara to repeat, happily, then sadly.  It goes on and on until Sara is enraged and Toni is only and compulsively checking her lists, no longer even looking at Sara.  When Toni tries to explain the ambiguities of words, it’s general, it’s academic and it’s entirely beside the point.  Her spiel turns into babble, drowned out by dramatic music.

Much of this solipsism is expressed in dance in which struggle, strain and fruitless hostility are clear.  Sara Di Segna is a trained dancer and her elegant and expressive movements are a pleasure to watch.  Toni Main may not be a trained dancer but she is equally expressive with a sort of calculated, panting, red-faced clumsiness. 

Speechless began with Ms Main and Ms Di Segna bouncing off each other, improvising words and movements around their concept.  Ironically, these two women actually do communicate very well.  Georgina Capper joined them, contributing the framework of a plot, directing and creating the effective counterpoint sound design.  This is a show that deserves an audience.  If I’ve made it sound ‘arty’ and a little abstract, its meaning is perfectly clear, it’s fun, and the performers are engaging and quite delightful.

Michael Brindley

Photography by Georgina Capper