For You to Know and Me to Find Out

New Zealand choreographer and performer Liv Tennet has created a touching piece of theatre that uses a combination of dance, sound, narrative and puppetry to describe the challenges of being a new parent, including the effects on relationships, friendships and careers: “Who will work, who will make a living from their art?”

Tennet’s story is skilfully segmented. Different dance styles and physical theatre are augmented by recordings of a child’s voice or changes in pace and music – the score to the performance ranging from Sesame Street songs to classical music and pop.

Tennet is a good actor and her comedic timing, use of pause and facial expressions add dimension and depth to the physicality and variety of dance styles. She is lithe and athletic, moving effortlessly from contemporary dance to ballet to tap and hip hop as she takes the audience through the joys and frustrations, successes and vexations of being a mother. Each situation she depicts is totally identifiable – as the chuckles and wry smiles of the audience attest!

The minimalist set has everything Tennet needs to tell her story. Soft, nursery furniture, a washing basket, a toy home computer, a life-sized soft puppet, a fluffy dressing gown with elongated arms and enormous hands – and coloured blocks strewn across the floor. All of them become part of the performance, helping her to share the emotions and dilemmas she expresses in dance.

No ‘chapter’ in her story is long, but there is little she misses in this fifty minute performance. There are many memorable moments: an incredible tap routine in the fluffy dressing gown, the long arms symbolically suggesting “why not take all of me”; a failed audition conducted by the recorded voice of a child ending with “Sorry Mum!”; and a gently funny depiction of the effect of fatigue and exhaustion on romance!

Liv Tennet has combined dance and dramatic forms in a perceptive comment a special time in her life. In doing so she has created a piece of theatre  that is gently moving and sensitively insightful.

Carol Wimmer