Reviewed Thursday 22nd May 2014
Five years in the making,
A Delicate Situation came to the Space Theatre at the Adelaide Festival Centre to fascinate a full house audience with its supernatural themes. Central to the work is the Malay and Indonesian myth of the Pontianak, a vampire ghost of a woman who died while pregnant and who returns to terrorise humans, usually men. It is related to, and often confused with the lang suir, a woman who died giving birth. They are said to have pale skin, long hair and dress in white. Many still believe in this creature.
Director and choreographer, Lina Limosani, who started her career in Adelaide with the Australian Dance Theatre, has taken this work through several incarnations and much development along the way. It is a remarkable piece that embraces this myth, and includes conflict with a European woman of substantial social standing, who completely ignores her servant. One is led to assume that this is possibly the period of Dutch colonisation.
The work is extremely sensual and embraces a range of techniques and ideas. There is a nod to wayan kulit shadow puppetry, with the wide skirt acting as a screen, and when the Pontianak manoeuvres the woman, using two short pieces of dowel, I couldn't help thinking of the Japanese puppetry form, Bunraku. More puppetry comes from Lisa Lonero and
Alex Knox who, dressed completely in black, manipulate inanimate articles.
Using these techniques makes Neil Jensen's lighting crucial to enabling the effects to happen but, more importantly, he creates a range of effects that combine with the performance narrative suggesting everything between disturbing and downright terrifying. Eve Lambert's costuming also has a great deal to do with the atmosphere and, of course, Hardesh Singh's sound design also has a big role to play in this. The technical side of the production contributes so much thanks to the superb work of these people.
The piece opens with large white dustsheets either side of the stage, covering what will later be revealed to be furniture. Another white cloth lies bundled in the middle of the stage, but it begins to move, expanding across the floor. It lifts in the middle and a dancer gradually appears; first hands, then forearms, head, and the upper arms. The cloth becomes a dress, with huge flowing skirt. We see a glimpse of the Pontianak.
The scene changes as the dustsheets are removed and the European woman enters, expecting her young servant to run around after her, silently administering to her every whim. This encounter generates some humour, but it is to be short lived with the arrival of the Pontianak. The work goes much further, though, looking at the concepts of birth, life, death, and what, if anything, comes after, western concerns blended with Asian beliefs.
Suhaili Micheline Ahmad Kamil is the servant girl and Pontianak, while Carol Wellman Kelly is the victim. Limosani has made much of the conflicts and shifting power plays between the two bringing, forth a whole range of emotional responses to the ongoing situation. The two performers, in turn, respond to her direction by building their characters and expressing the complex relationship between a human and a paranormal entity. Their individual performances are gripping and the interaction between them has an intensity that leaves the audience awed.
This is a sensational work that has so many intricacies and enormous visual impact that it demands, and receives, the full attention of the audience. The juxtaposition of Western and Eastern views and beliefs is handled with considerable sensitivity, and gives food for thought.
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