Pedal.Peddle & Castles

Pedal.Peddle & Castles
Double bill presented as part of the Boardwalk Republic by House of Sand. Created and performed by Eliza Sanders. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Gasworks, 21 Graham Street, Albert Park. 27 & 30 September (Pedal) 27 September -1 October 2016 (Castles).

These shows work well as a double bill as the nature of the highly innovative and ground-breaking work of Eliza Sanders is unusual and heavily stylised, and this can require some acclimatising. Sanders merges a variety of art forms including dance, cabaret, theatre and visual and performance art. All of these forms are fully explored and their boundaries are often pushed to their limits. The abstract qualities of the show can present a challenge when trying to engage with the themes that are occurring, but the performance is always visually striking and aesthetically arresting.

Sanders’s poetic text and melodic singing is accompanied by an estranged relationship to movement and props. A variety and multitude of ideas such as subjective memory, repetition, love, relationships, and a sense of abode are all alluded to in a dream-like manner. This direct appeal to the unconscious can sometimes be confronting and quite subversive, while also remaining playful and spirited.

The manoeuvring of objects, in particular costuming, is radical. The unravelling of cloth and the treatment of garments take on a whole new dimension. This creates some incredibly fluid as well ruptured movement which elicits a gentle and graceful rhythm that Sanders has carefully crafted. The greatest strength of this show lies in the extraordinarily dynamic and nimble physicality of this very talented performer.

Patricia Di Risio

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