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With Dublin Fringe Festival coming to a close this weekend, theatre-goers have had their pick of the eclectic and cutting edge performance art that makes September in Dublin an utter delight. After spending these last two weeks or so ingratiating myself with the up-and-coming, nothing exemplified the spirit of Dublin Fringe quite as well as John Scott’s dance theatre piece Everything Now.
I have seen many a thing at Dublin Fringe; triangles being dragged across a stage, a heartfelt personal monologue on cancer, and the Kerry Babies. Yet nothing – and I mean nothing – I have ever seen, both at Dublin Fringe and nationwide, has affected me as much as Everything Now. Having furiously cycled over to the Smock Alley Theatre to ensure I was on time, I arrived out of breath excited to sit down and relax, neither of which would actually happen when the show began. If audiences are planning to see this show, ensure you are going in with a clear peace of mind.
Everything Now is not theatre, it is an experience; an odyssey through the avant-garde Theatre of Cruelty that proves as crucially self-aware as it is unsettling. Opening with performer Kevin Coquelard switching his pants for his t-shirt and vice versa, audiences enter a world where sense is thrown thoroughly out the window, before being immediately brought back to the terrifying reality which constitutes today. Coquelard, whose initial movements receive tentative laughs and splutters, finds himself followed by a small silent mob of iPads refracting the performers’ movements to the audience through screens. Any laughter from the audience is hushed as innocent movements evolve to become stomach churning. Reminiscent of Black Mirror, this image is the first of the piece to comment on the theme of media and consumption.
John Scott’s work is highly diverse, especially in its use of movement and performers. Although the development of a core trio of performers illustrates intense training and skill; the overall cast are from all walks of life and prove that dance is not an exclusionary medium. Standout performer Maurice Ivy’s control and tone fits perfectly with the significantly raw energy of Sebastiao Kamalandua, a man whose life-changing experiences with the Angolan army and threat of deportation gives his performance on Western media and consumption an exceptional vivacity. Ivy and Kamalandua’s performances prove equal and complementary in illustrating that dance is more than just skill, it is a way of life, that anyone with a will for storytelling can undertake it.
Everything Now is an overwhelming piece of theatre. At moments, the recitation and implementation of Theatre of Cruelty practitioner Antonin Artaud’s techniques made me feel light headed and queasy, at other times thoroughly unwell. Watching the cast intertwine while reciting lines from their broadsheet was unsettling. However, when the scene evolved to all cast members stuffing their mouths with the newspaper they were once carrying while continuing to recite their headlines, I had to close my eyes and exhale.
Unmissable and unequalled, John Scott’s choreography seemingly explores identity, fear, and how humanity, including our media, can continue to move and speak in contrast and unison. The piece is frightening, unsettling and, at moments, surprisingly wholesome. Overall, the world premier of Everything Now is like nothing I have seen before. It is beyond the realm of theatre and dance, proving to be a forthright comment on human experience; astounding and beautiful.
