A wedding
held on a cruise ship was disrupted by a storm and everyone on board
experienced some kind of revelation. This
Australia/ Portugal co-production Blackout was by Paulo Castro and Jo Stone, making
its world premiere at the Adelaide Festival. The performance was held at AC Arts Main Theatre.
While this
was billed as a dance programme under the Adelaide Festival, it was more like a
physical theatre / drama performance to me, with spoken texts and dialogue
taking up bulk of the performance time.
On the cruise ship, we had the insecure bride and bridegroom, the absent
bride’s father, the drunken bridesmaid, the over-friendly best man, the unsuccessful
musician-friend, the macho ship captain and the waitress with a secret. While these characters could be
stereotypical, they were handled by the excellent ensemble cast.
The opening
and ending dance sequence were memorable, complemented by the technical design,
in particular the water elements. For
this preview performance, I found the middle section (where we got to know each
person more) was too long. The long winded and predictable narrative did not bring the plot forward.
Blackout
had interesting ideas and could do with a shorten storyline so as to bring out
the physical theatre aspect of it. I
believe a tighter version would emerge when the show officially opened on
Wednesday.
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