Human Interest Story

Lucy Guerin Inc has created a confronting and truly thought provoking piece of theatre. Choreographed by Guerin herself, this production is so much more than just dance. The piece looks at a dichotomy that all of us experience; that is, the way we can become wrapped up in the trivialities of our own daily existence in the same way that we can become emotionally invested the stories behind the news headlines we see every day. Through dance, Guerin contends that we can neither be trapped in our own day to day problems, nor be constantly responding emotionally to the headlines in the media. Finding a balance between the two is the key; we have a responsibility to be aware of what is going on in the world around us, yet many of us can become consumed by the headlines and experience feelings of helplessness and anxiety.

 

Set on a dully lit open stage, the blackness and emptiness of the space seemed endless. The only break in the void was the presence of a life size reproduction tank, lurking ominously in the background. The tank initially seemed a rather incongruous choice of set piece, and was never fully lit or interacted with in any way, nor specifically referred to. Yet as the performance progressed, its presence created a real sense of tension and even fear. Perhaps it is not what a tank is, but rather what it represents that made the point; the presence of a tank in any situation is indicative of a situation gone wrong. A large television to broadcast a news bulletin and pieces of newspaper were also included in the set and each contributed to the performance. The pieces of newspaper in particular were laid out, spread out, scrunched up, and stuffed into one dancer’s costume before being pulled out again and kicked off stage. As props, they became an effective additive to the exploration of the notion that newspaper headlines can consume us.

 

The six dancers, Stuart Shugg, Stephanie Lake, Alisdair Macindoe, Talitha Maslin, Harriet Ritchie and Jessica Wong, executed the choreography with a preciseness that was utterly mesmerising. Much of the movement, particularly in the opening section, was set to the rhythmic recital of news headlines by the dancers themselves.  With very little music initially and only the intermittent buzzing of white noise, this proved quite impressive. There were moments when all six performers spoke and danced in complete unison, producing an effect that was robotic and, at times, quite comical. The comedy continued when the dancing was interrupted with a televised presentation of mock headlines about the more mundane aspects of the dancers’ actual lives.

 

This salute to the normality of the everyday was directly contrasted with the intensity of the events we constantly see broadcast in the news. To demonstrate this, two dancers had a benign conversation about working at Coles and, as they chatted, the audience watched as they deliberately and violently forced their dance partners into subversive and uncomfortable shapes. Guerin continued to explore this juxtaposition during Macindoe’s solo in which he was quite literally stuffed with newspaper headlines, and performed a dance that was both grotesque and humorous. As he was symbolically disembowelled by his fellow performers, the point that Guerin is trying to make became clear; that we can be torn apart by the news we hear if we allow ourselves to give in to emotion and anxiety.

 

The final section of the piece seemed to embody a real sense of panic and the dancing could only be described as brutal. Dressed in blacks, a stark contrast to the colourful patterned trousers and tops of the opening section, the dancers embarked on a sequence of furious and frenetic choreography. This was accompanied by the amplified heavy breathing and vocalisation from the dancers and a soundtrack by Jethro Woodward that brought together a choppy mix of music, static and sound effects that was deliberately pushed to an ear-splittingly high volume. It was punctuated by a series of freezes, in which one dancer would visibly break character and have a ‘breather’; at one stage even leaving the space to get a drink from the foyer. Clearly, Guerin used this device to make the point that we need to have a ‘break’ from the bombardment that the media presents us with. 

 

 Every time the dancers broke character, the audience relaxed, enjoying the insight into the ‘everydayness’ of their lives. Guerin, however, never allowed us to get too comfortable, yanking us unceremoniously back into witnessing a dance sequence that jarred our senses and confronted our sensibilities. During the moments of quiet in the performance, one couldn’t help but feel a little relieved not to be so bombarded with noise and activity; yet at the same time, the energy of the movement was completely engrossing and emotionally loaded. And it is this confusing mixture of intrigue and denial felt by the audience that precisely illustrates the point ‘Human Interest Story’ is trying to make.