Review: RHIANNON FAITH COMPANY: LAY DOWN YOUR BURDENS, Barbican

Rhiannon Faith Company premieres Lay Down Your Burdens at the Barbican Centre, another “socially conscious” work to add to their ever-growing portfolio.

When I read about work promising to give “space to consider the meaning and importance of community” it takes me instantly back to a controversial piece written by Igor Toronyi-Lalic (Arts Editor) in The Spectator this July.

Toronyi-Lalic proposed that “getting an audience to identify themselves in a work – ‘being seen’ – is one of the only reasons why art is commissioned, celebrated or even allowed to exist today” - which is absolutely food for thought regarding the current box ticking/funding culture.

But an equally prevalent notion is that art concerned with the human experience shouldn't be sidelined due to its very substance. Some observers want to engage with identity/humanity and rightly so.

As one enters The Pit the feel is more Working Club than Local, but designer Noemi Daboczi's choices are spot on, right down to the carpet. The set centres around a circular bar where Sarah the Landlady rules the roost. And behind her are curtained cubicles that double up as pub sitting spots and intimate performance spaces.

The lighting by Bethany Gupwell is another success, with her visual insight tapping into the individuality of the cast members, and whatever their characters may be portraying emotionally. She realises this through sensitive gradation, pools of downlighting and lamps on endless wires.

I'm a fan of Faith, however at this point Lay Down Your Burdens doesn't communicate as a cohesive work.

The words are heartfelt and relatively poignant, and the movement shouts expressive folk; elevated by John Victor's Gaelic infused score - but the overall emotional atmosphere is somehow lacking. And no matter how immersive the work is aiming to be, I ultimately felt outside of it, and at times patronised. Put simply: it didn't carry me away.

The content mentions light and joy, but the majority of the subject matter focuses on pain and grief. These are, of course, intense thought processes, but unfortunately veer towards the performative and heavy-handed in execution.

It feels important to acknowledge that Faith's work is borne through care and consideration. Yet the overriding sentiment is of being forced to feel, rather than being enabled to get there through one's own experience. Art should indeed encourage emotion, but there's a fine line between guiding and coercing.

Lay Down Your Burdens runs at the Barbican Centre till November 25

Photo credit: Foteini Christofilopoulou