ADAM'S APPLE. To 14 August.

London

ADAM'S APPLE
by SharpWire

bac Studio 2 To 14 August 2004
Tue-Sat 8.30pm Runs 1hr No interval

TICKETS: 020 7223 2223
www.bac.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 August

Something quite rich and strange in the way of birth and development.This is a staged song-cycle, composed by its performers (Pete M Wyer seemingly having the major hand) to words including a Lorca poem sung in Spanish and a lyric by Wyer himself. The production, which has toured as part of bac's experimental This Way Up' season, returns home for the first part of August.

With this title and the theme of creation, Wyer's cool, enigmatic presence gives him the air of a god moving in mysterious ways. When he does move. The opening image as the audience enters is the concentrated stillness of his seated figure.

Projected imagery plays a significant part in the show. From its flickering images Matthew Sharp emerges, nearly naked as a new-born baby, and takes up the cello against Wyer's guitar. At times this seems like a physical energising, from six strings to four, but more often there's an element of competition, even conflict, as if the new creation is finding its feet, then its place in the world.

A naked-torsoed Sharp on screen sits in a park (if this is Eden, it's rather municipal, including a graffitied monument), disappearing and reappearing from the image as, at various times, a mysterious Wyer-like figure moves towards him.

Only at the end does the mythic element suffer from physical limitations. The programme note's ascension' is actually Sharp hooked-up by Wyer, suspended; weightless as in water, or back in amniotic fluid in any case under the control of Wyer's figure. This defies the logic of the piece, which moves towards Sharp's greater independence (including clothing and instructions how to don it from the sky). There's a fine moment when his pizzicato challenge to Wyer's urgent guitar soars off into a bowed melody.

A female figure (presumably choreographer Amanda Miller) dancing on screen provides another image of freedom and joy an Eve for this Adam. Other lyrical moments are provided by Sharp's singing, especially the first, high setting of Lorca's Adam.

Just the type of experimental cross-fertilisation bac provides, Adam's Apple is itself developmental; individual and intriguing, it holds in itself the potential for further refining and development.

Performers: Matthew Sharp, Pete M Wyer

Designer/video: Tobin Rothlein
Lighting: Joe White
Choreographer: Amanda Miller

2004-08-07 09:43:12