Guttered

Director Michelle Ryan writes: ‘safety nets, however well intended, can often do more harm than good’.

This is a premise which is deeply interwoven through Restless Dance Theatre’s latest offering, Guttered, at Norwood Kingpin Bowl.

In my mind bowling has always been a pastime open to all - fun and an assault on the senses - in a good way.  This piece makes the audience member reassess this, as it applies to people with disability. Do we truly allow them an environment in which they can take risks and have personal dignity? Or do we, as the piece bluntly shows us, remove these, by insisting on using ball ramps and gutter guards to allow success, soften the blows of any failure. Do we also do this to people with disability in the real world - believing they are restricted and not giving them opportunities because we don’t want them to be hurt by failure?

This is a clever, confronting and thought-provoking piece. The creative group that brought Intimate Spaces to the Hilton Hotel several years ago is reunited for this performance. Michelle Ryan certainly knows how to portray a message which resonates, through movement, colour and music.

We are welcomed to the separate area of the Norwood Bowl and instructed to go to the trolley for further instructions. There, we are assessed as to our role - mine being cheerleader - and given a personal scorecard to ponder on whether we perceive ourselves as ‘winners’. This theme is also integral to the message - do we always have to win? Is it OK to just enjoy?

We are taken on a journey - one which breaks the fourth wall - as we are encouraged to listen to whispered messages, get up and join in the bowling and cheer for the dancers. There are some beautiful moments of duet dancing and whole group movement, which use the series of bowling lanes to great effect. The soundscape by Jason Sweeney is beautiful and (thankfully) blocks out the noise of the birthday party further along the alley as it swells and lifts us, and the dancers. The staging by Meg Wilson is extremely creative, utilizing the space well and integrating clever vision. Lighting by Geoff Cobham is eclectic, as the piece demands, and free-standing fluoros moved about by cast members add a depth to the large area.

These dancers work seamlessly as a team and tell stories of rejection, care, aggression and underestimation of people with disability.

This is an extremely clever piece of theatre and quite mesmerising for the hour-long performance. Well done again Restless Dance on making theatre that makes us really think.

Shelley Hampton

Photographer: Shane Reid.

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