Medusa | The Blue Room | Until 3 November | ★ ★ ★ ½
Entering the performance space at The Blue Room for Medusa is quite a confronting experience. There are no chairs, the audience has to find their own space in a gathering that has already begun.
Six performers are chanting, beating their chests, stamping their feets, calling out to the Greek gorgon. They shout out to the spirit of the snake-headed monster who was destroyed by Perseus, summoning her to return. They dance, they circle, they beat drums. It’s tribal.
For the audience it’s like you’ve just entered the greatest nightclub you’ve ever been to, or possibly you’ve entered into a space where you shouldn’t be. The show is designed to put you on edge, it doesn’t matter where you stand at some point you’ll be in the way. It doesn’t matter where you look, with most of the performers topless – you’ll feel like you should be looking somewhere else.
The participants yell out praise to Medusa and re-tell her story, linking it in with challenges women face today. In a world where women are murdered, sexually assaulted and need to be constantly checking their safety, the ability to turn a man to stone with just a look has obvious appeal.
The show innovatively uses video projection and mobile technology to transform the space into a place where sound and vision and live performance combine. The production is from a script written by Finn O’Branagáin, directed by Joe Lui. Ish Marrington designed the costumes and set, while Clare Testoni designed the AV and Kristie Smith designed the lighting. This collaboration produces a work that is immersive.
Performers Moana Lutton, Jacinta Larcombe, Jess Moyle, Mani Mae Gomes, Andrew Sutherland and Michelle Aitken boldly summon Medusa, portrayed by Sandy McKendrick.
It’s very much an immersive theatrical experience, rather than a narrative driven show. There’s pictures to look at, body paint messages to read, chanting to decipher and rituals to unscramble. Take it in, and themes and questions will begin to formulate in your mind.
Through it’s telling the play says a lot about equality, how women are treated by history, ageism, the male gaze, the patriarchy, and potentially an endless number of questions the work may provoke.
See Medusa at The Blue Room.
Graeme Watson
