Skip to main content

Review of Broken by Motionhouse at The Castle Theatre, Wellingborough

When I first investigated Motionhouse's Broken via its vivid trailer, it felt as if it could offer some fascinating stage work familiar to that of Frantic Assembly, which I truly wanted to see more of. Therefore I found myself in the main theatre at Wellingborough for the very first time last week to see what was going to be quite a show.

The first thing to say is that Motionhouse is in reality a very different beast to the work of Frantic Assemby, happily plowing its own rich reserves of contemporary dance, where as Frantic builds a story around physical motion. What artistic director Kevin Finnan brings to the stage is a world travelling a path of early human evolution through to a potential collapse as we reach at the end a cataclysmic event. Well that is what it feels like, as much like a painting, the audience might get many feelings and emotions from the scenes depicted. In the early cave scenes we appear to have dancing amoebas as life begins. Then we progress through to cavemen and strange apparitions, including some impressive stilt work. Finally we have a domestic situation in a block of flats which carries us into a quite spectacular visual feast of a conclusion.

The performers Martina Bussi, Daniel Connor, Junior Cunningham, Alasdair Stewart, Naomi Tadevossian and Rebecca Williams are never short of stunning as they show tremendous strength and emotion through their dance. Seeing some of them after the show is quite a revelation as they are so surprisingly small in person. Dancers have quite an amazing way to appear to have such strength through apparently minimal visual effort, bringing a wonderful delicate touch. This is what makes the whole thing so tender. It is without doubt a remarkable ability.

Technically and aurally the show is an equally amazing prospect. Pumping and dynamic music from Sophy Smith and Tim Dickinson combines wonderfully with Logela Multimedia's work on the imagery. The dancers magically timing their arrival and departures in tune with the vast projections. I also loved the way the lighting during the cave scene managed to play wonderful giant shadows across the side of the theatre.

So an absolute delight of a show, which may have at times suffered from a couple of the sequences being slightly over long. However it builds with every scene adding more technical advances and finishes with a simply stunning piece. Very highly recommended.

««««½


Performance reviewed: Thursday 25th February, 2016 at the Castle Theatre, Wellingborough.

Broken by Motionhouse was performed at the Castle Theatre , Wellingborough on Thursday 25th February, 2016 only but it currently touring into April. Details can be found at http://www.motionhouse.co.uk/index.shtml

For details about The Castle see their website at http://thecastle.org.uk/

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...
Read more

Review of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

2:22 A Ghost Story continues an endless rise and run of success on the stage. This play by Danny Robins was first staged as recently as August 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre and since then the show continued to run in London for two years, moving to four further London theatres, before eventually closing in the city to embark on this tour, which began in September last year. During these runs, the cast has constantly been updated with often populist actors, and some, which are not even associated with acting. As this reaches Royal & Derngate, now even the touring cast has been swept clean and four further performers take on the incredible success of a show. This is the second time I have seen 2:22 A Ghost Story , and it is safe to say that on that first viewing, with the previous tour cast, I was not as blown away by the play as the success seemed to warrant. The aforementioned populist casting seemed to have driven a so-so ghostly tale into success beyond its quality, and with th...
Read more

Review of Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Despite now having seen a few dance shows encompassing many different styles, I had yet to see one developed by Sir Matthew Bourne, a controversial player in his time, but as the relatively recent knighthood suggests, now very much embraced by the establishment. So, does Romeo + Juliet live up to his name, that is the question? So, first, this might normally be where I give you a brief outline of the story, but, for one, most have a general understanding of the love disaster of William Shakespeare's play already, and two, as it turns out from the Bourne production, a huge amount of what you might be familiar with has gone or been dramatically changed anyway. There is shocking complicity in murders, there are different moments of murder and gone are the warring factions of the Montagues and Capulets. Characters themselves feel very different at times also, to such an extent that even knowing the play doesn't always make it clear who is who at times. So, if all that sounds...
Read more