THE BALLAD till 27 August.

Edinburgh Fringe 2007.

THE BALLAD.

Zoo Southside, 117 Nicolson St.
To 27 August 2007.
Daily 1.10pm.
Runs 50min No interval.

TICKETS: 0131 662 6892 or Fringe BO 0131 226 0000.
www.ayeproductions.co.uk
Review: Thelma Good 26 August 2007.

One confusion is a pity.
A woman appears walking along the beach. She stops and rests on the rocks and watches a young man flying a kite. At first he is utterly absorbed in the kite but once he sees her he can’t resist looking at her.

The tensions and fearful awe of increasing attraction, then love are captured by Saul Garcia and Tara Hodgson. The sense of moving into a place where there is no solid ground, where emotions spin out of control, and you feel drawn yet want to run away from the person who draws you, are danced and moved between them using fine detail and including aerial work.

No words are spoken but the developing story is delightfully suggested to the music of Kathryn Sawers, with the title of the piece being The Ballad you might expect tunes from Scottish folk songs to appear but I only spotted 'Coulter's Candy'.

When a child is born but the mother dies it’s very confusing to watch. The baby, Hodgson, struggles suspended in its ambiotic sack till it’s born, then the baby lies still on the floor or that is what it looks like. But later you realise the figure lying prone is in fact the mother, the baby becomes the coil of material tossed aside just after the birth.

That one confusion is a pity in this largely successful piece of Aye Productions' dance-movement theatre first seen in 2005 at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, and now recast here.

Performers: Saul Garcia and Tara Hodgson.

Director: Jonothan Campbell.
Lighting: Simon Gane.
Composer/Live Music: Kathryn Sawers.
Movement: Kally Lloyd-Jones .
Aerial Desigher: Bruce Luckhurst.

2007-08-29 10:03:53