SCENT. To 8 April.

Southampton

SCENT
devised by Russ Tunney

Nuffield Theatre To 8 April 2006
Runs 1hr No interval
Review Hazel Brown Tue 4 April at Nuffield Theatre Southampton

A poignant blend of music, words and dance.
Scent is a poignant picture in “seven songs and seven and a half poems” plus dance, of love, particularly young love, its joys, obsessions and uncertainties.

To the insistent beat of Springsteen’s ‘Fourth of July’, the two actors enter and dance sensuously, full of lifts, sinuous intertwining bodies, demonstrations of trust in leaning and falling, as well as a struggle. Then the story begins. A young man and a woman meet in a park. She is delighted to catch him on a bench reading poetry out-loud, and asks him home with her to listen to her song. Though spellbound by her, the man reluctantly refuses as he has ‘responsibilities’. When she twists her ankle she meets him at the hospital; he is a doctor and this time he agrees to come and listen to her songs.

She has seven songs that are important to her: the words, music and the feelings they express implicitly in performance. And he has poetry. At one point he expresses his feelings for her, saying they are his words, just written by someone else. Their love affair is advanced by poems and songs, punctuated by the dance routine, until dialogue is finally added to the steps.

The two young performers interact beautifully and their dance routines express emotions laid bare. The piece also expresses the different ways men and women experience love and conflict. Some of the songs are well known; the poetry less so. Thess express the wonder, joy and sadness of love from the pens of Henry Normal, ee cummings, John Claire, Wendy Cope, Edwin Morgan, Julia Copus, Barbara Kingsolver, Carol Ann Duffy, David Constantine, Katie Donovan and Rupert Brooke. The songs (really poems set to music) are by Aimee Mann, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, U2, Rufus Wainwright, Crowded House, The Cardigans and Damian Rice. It certainly whetted my appetite to explore the poetry further.

This is a lovely vignette, dealing with intimacy in a very small space: funny, moving and life-affirming.

Man: Steven Bews
Woman: Emily Evans

Director: Russ Tunney
Designer Hayley Grindle
Lighting Mark Dymock
Sound: Daniel Paine

2006-04-10 12:29:40