Review: BENNELONG: ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2018 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Pamela Watts, Thursday 15th March 2018.

Bangara Dance performance of Bennelong is an emotionally moving story that unfolds through seamlessly flowing scenes, choreographed by Stephen Page in consultation with dramaturge, Alana Valentine. Visually compelling and engaging, employing the very best of contemporary theatre. This performance, underscored by a story we may know, relentlessly carried the audience through narratives and themes to a point of actually understanding.

Bennelong, kidnapped by settlers, is noted as the first Aboriginal man to learn English, adopt European ways and travel to London in order to open a dialogue between two cultures. On his return he found himself and outsider exiled from both cultures. Addicted to alcohol, he died in 1813.

This performance showcases Stephen Page's abilities in creating a balance between both traditional Aboriginal style and contemporary dance. Page acknowledges the contribution from his dancers to the choreography that offers so much to the spirit of the performance. Beau Dean Riley Smith is compelling and persuasive in the role of Bennelong, with mesmerising movements portraying his experiences and emotions to their final conclusion. The ensemble works in a powerfully visceral way creating visual, sculptural and pulsating interpretations of the evolving story. Both abstract and interpretive movements blended, through image, music, and time, to evoke a wide range of emotions from the audience. There was no doubt of this effect with a standing ovation from the audience at the conclusion.

Steve Francis's uncompromisingly driven soundscapes create the embodiment of the story for a powerful, emotionally charged journey. Culturally interpretive music that, at times, is pulsating with tension and, at other times, hauntingly tragic. Francis combines voiceover, songs, music by Haydn, Rule Brittania and old racist sea shanties. Additional music and lyrics in language by Matthew Doyle combine with contemporary electronic sounds to create a highly original and engaging experience.

The set design, by Jacob Nash, opens the performance with the image of a giant circle suspended in space and light against a black background. Slowly smoke evolves from the circle creating a most hauntingly beautiful image. The symbols used in this minimal sculptural set are beautifully interpretive and evocative and, in Nash's words, they are indeed sacred, contemporary and strong. They are enhanced with the stark nakedness of the stage area allowing no illusion as to the integration of performance with technology. The dancers' bodies are highlighted to move not only through and within these sculptural forms, but also through time and space and between two cultures. The final scene offers the bare brutality of building blocks that construct a prison cell-like structure that punctuates the conclusion.

Nick Schlieper's lighting design masterfully accentuates the atmosphere of each scene from the brutal and tragic to the gentle and intimate. At all times, the lighting highlights the dancers bodies as they move, contort and catapult through space. Time stands still for some remarkable images of dust and haze enveloping the dancers as their movements interpret the stories. The lighting was sympathetic to the costumes with soft washes of colour enhancing all scenes. From stunning projected images that the dancers moved through, to employing stark beams to highlight dramatic events, this lighting design was brilliant.

Jennifer Irwin's costumes are original creative interpretations of both cultural image and period with great sympathy for the dancer's movements and characters. Costumes are textured aged and dyed to keep originality and sensitivity to the interpretation. They are subtle intriguing and most effective. The inclusion of the symbolic hat worn by Bennelong was insightful. The overall effect is engaging and interpretive, enabling us to accompany the characters through their journey.

This is a truly memorable production from Bangarra Dance offering a deep insightful cultural journey through time. For this reviewer, it offered the difference between knowing a story and understanding it.

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