There’s no such thing as a tired theme, only tired ways of approaching it. The idea that there are undercurrents of violence and irrationality running through society which are only kept in check by a veneer of civilisation is not a new one. This idea is the main meat of Emma Martin Dance’s Dogs, but there’s nothing tired about this work.
With thoughtful musical arrangement by Tom Lane (harpsichord and viola) and Bryan O’Connell (drums), and vocals from soprano Elizabeth Woods, the piece is big with atmosphere despite a minimalist set design, managing to fill Project Arts’ Space Upstairs with ease.
Notwithstanding the promise of letting go of all ‘acceptable behavior’ made in the programme notes, the choreography remains contained throughout. The tightly arranged sequences performed by the six dancers are punctuated by jittery, internalised gestures that suggest repressed impulses. In a series of cut-short primal outbursts, the performers vibrate limbs, heads, and torsos, or cavort on hands and knees, scuffing the loose earth on stage after taking shoes off, before coming back upright.
Toby Fitzgibbon’s two-part monologue forms one of the strongest sections of the piece, his account of losing his cool in the rough and tumble of the corner shop queue one of the few outlets for a genuinely cathartic release of pent-up violence. The technique of layering his speech over Justine Cooper’s unintelligible mutterings creates an impression of clamouring internal voices driving Fitzgibbon over the edge.
What Dogs pictures is not humanity turned native, but, more interestingly, humanity made neurotic by the shackles of civilization. Martin marries an astute choreographic eye with the will to realise ‘big’ concepts. With the exception of one or two moments (in particular, the appearance of three majorettes at the close of the piece that jars with the tone of the whole), the performance is pitch perfect, dancers and musicians together deftly constructing a pocket of unreality that yet reflects the reality we live in.
Dogs runs for two more days at the Fringe – tickets are available right here.
Words Rachel Donnelly
