Betroffenheit: probing the darkest recesses of the mind

Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young (a Kidd Pivot & Electric Company Theatre co-production)
Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London
May 31, 2016

Maggie Foyer

Crystal Pite has proved she can deal with all forms of dance. From tiny nuanced moves in Tempest Replica to the huge wave of bodies in Polaris she finds the essence of meaning in movement and now together with theatre director Jonathon Young she takes a quantum leap into the dark recesses of the human soul in torment. Pite tackles the longitudinal in dance, while Young tackles the latitudinal in words and between them they encompass the globe.

The personal element: the trauma in Young’s life that sent him on this quest, could so easily have slunk into a maudlin morass but amazingly it doesn’t go there. Rather his performance sets him in a professional frame, forming a protective shield. The constant psychiatrist-speak, played as a repetitive voiceover is harnessed and his despair morphs into a manic display of show time feathers and pizzazz. Embracing the world of glitzy entertainment, the dancers find a slew of hidden talents: tapping, salsa and ventriloquism, to back up his role as the popular host. But it’s just another distraction, an addiction that brings him to a state of exhaustion.

Jonathon Young in BetroffenheitPhoto Michael Slobodian
Jonathon Young in Betroffenheit
Photo Michael Slobodian

The opening set is a shabby room, decorated with snake-like cables and illuminated by lurid yellow neon lights. In keeping with a mind that is short circuiting, light flash on and off and the sound transmission is erratic. The dancers lurk, sometimes manhandling Young and sometimes acting out his fantasies in a display of uber-intelligent cartoon animation.

The second act is gloomy monochrome and delineated by a central pillar, an austere slab the height of the proscenium arch. Initially a cascade of light flows down, but later back lighting behind the pillar, splits the stage to brilliant effect, creating a pregnant world of liminal borders; shifting and reshaping as emotions are played out and dance takes centre stage.

Crystal Pite has a truly authentic voice. Within the chaos of trauma, she creates an eloquent language, full of insight, charged with meaning and imminently watchable. Her five versatile and talented dancers fly and fall before freezing into poses, as monumental as a Rodin sculpture. Their bodies, articulate and powerful, create riveting moment that pulsate with energy.

BetroffenheitPhoto Wendy D Photography
Betroffenheit
Photo Wendy D Photography

Her choreography finds perfect expression in Jermaine Spivey who plays minder and alter ego to Young. In a moment of dark despair, the painted canvas cloth depicting the house appears as in a nightmare, threatening to devour Young who fights it off like Don Quixote flailing at his windmills. It is Spivey who comes to the rescue exposing it as just an imitation. They are alone on the stage in the final moments. Young still churning over the traumatic past while Spivey dances out his angst: a mercurial figure, as light on his feet as a cat and his body as liquid as quicksilver. As memorable evenings go, Betroffenheit is in the first rank.