I AM FALLING, Carrie Cracknell and Anna Williams.
London:
I AM FALLING: by Carrie Cracknell and Anna Williams.
Lilian Baylis Studio.
Sadler’s Wells.
Rosebery Avenue,
London EC1$ 4TN.
Wed-Sat 8.00pm.
Matinees, Sat 4.30pm.
Running time: 40 mins.
TICKETS: 0844 412 4300.
www.sadlerswells.com.
Review: Carole Woddis, Nov 2 of performance seen Nov 1.
Only five revived performances - but better that than none.
This is going to be a frustrating read for readers. Barely 40 minutes long, I Am Falling, a transfer from the Gate Theatre and the start of a new liaison between the Notting Hill theatre and London’s dance home, received only five performances. Better five performances, though, than none, giving a completely different audience the chance to see a work that, for me, registers as one of the most complete theatrical experiences of the year.
Text and dance are all the rage at present, witness the two recent `fusions’ at the National headed by Juliette Binoche, Akram Khan and Lloyd Newson.
But Cracknell, on her first foray into the combined art, can hold her head high. She proves yet again you don’t have to sledgehammer to be effective.
I Am Fallling does not try to do anything spectacularly new. Caryl Churchill, after all, was experimenting with text and dance many years ago. And it’s been at least two decades since `contact’ choreography, utilised here by Anna Williams, first spread its wings.
What I Am Falling possesses is something very rare: control, exquisite execution and a narrative of poignant precision by former Tricycle Theatre Literary Manager, Jenny Worton.
Gawn Grainger’s middle-aged son is looking back to a party he attended given by his parents. `Open bay windows…sherry soaked trifle’. Each word falls with economic clarity. Beside him, Ben Duke and Petra Söör nudge, caress and stretch into and away from each other. The motif of falling takes many forms.
Worton’s script is full of unforgettable images, none more so than the boy remembering, at the age of six, his mother leaning out over a clifftop, held fast by her husband, `a look of ecstasy on her face’.
The boy/man tells his story twice, the second time with increasing anguish. These parents loved each other to the exclusion of their own son and terminally, their own lives.
Apart from the wonderfully nuanced performances of Grainger, Duke and Söör, Katharine Williams’s stunning sprayed lighting and the vibrant, sensitive score of Edward Lewis add up to a `memory’ piece that itself shimmers in the memory – and goes very deep. Small but perfectly formed.
Cast:
Ben Duke, Gawn Grainger, Petra Söör
Director: Carrie Cracknell
Choreographer: Anna Williams
Text: Jenny Worton
Designer: Garance Marneur
Lighting Designer: Katharine Williams
Sound Designer: Edward Lewis
I Am Falling was first performed at the Gate Theatre London Jan 4, 2008
2008-11-04 08:34:34