Art Wednesday

Words by Stephen McEwen.

‘The average UK citizen takes 14 000 pills in a lifetime’ is the tagline for the dance-theatre production ‘Side Effects’, and a rather disconcerting one at that. This, I thought beforehand, could result in one of two things: socio-political satire about evil drugs companies keeping medicine from dying Africans, or trainspotting-esque glorification of drug culture. Surprisingly – and fortunately – it was neither.

Rather originally, Dante or Die choose to examine the effects of pills and medication within the realm of the quotidian, choosing to have pill ‘culture’ manifest itself within the familiarity of the home, and it is this which prevents the performance from becoming obscure and incomprehensible. In positing the main conceptual thrust of the production (and its subsequent visual and verbal expressions thereof) quite literally onto a domestic plan on the floor, each movement, gesture and pill takes on heightened significance. The duration of the performance also facilitates our engagement; as we are taken through a day in the life of a pilled up family, we experience sensual sleeping, seizures of insomnia and depression with temazepam, adolescent romps with the contraceptive pill, a heart attack, anxiety, and all to the perfectly appropriate (and admittedly en vogue) music of Yaniv Fridel. Performances are occasionally rough around the edges, but this does not detract from the innovative and original overall feel of the performance. What is most striking is the tenderness and humanity which quickly becomes apparent, since we see a life with pills, and a family life at that. We ultimately look beyond the pill, and see the human about to consume it. We are not presented with perfectly pirouetting dancers who look as if they’ve eaten nothing but pills, but are instead confronted with human bodies to which we can relate, ranging from the ages of 20 to 75. One scene in particular stands out, in which the daughter figure, Laure Bachelot, draws us into her world with a gestural language all of its own, expressing her anxiety, to then be sensually and lovingly comforted by her mother and grandmother through dance and movement. Yet the sign of a good performance – and an audience thoroughly engaged – came at the point at which each character develops a cough (of course, necessitating a new pill in due course), to be psycho-somatically followed by more than a few coughs in the audience.

Dante or Die draw us into a world of pills and medicine, one in which we learn a new visual and emotive language to express contemporary medicated existence. Fresh, innovative and engaging, yet also funny and humanly tender, this is one pill everyone should take.

‘Side Effects’ is on at Rich Mix from Tuesday 10^th February – Sunday 13^th, with a final performance at the Laban Theatre on Tuesday 1^st March.

Rich Mix (Click Here)