THE REVENGE OF POPPERFACE | Assessment

Phrases by Jodie Nunn.

THE REVENGE OF POPPERFACE is the primary instalment of the POPPERFACE Trilogy, the brain-child of choreographer and Horizon 2023 Artist, Gareth Chambers. Chambers isn’t one to shrink back from the darkish and dejected. Vicious maroon undercurrents raptured from the depths of the horror style awash his choreographic underworld; REVENGE revels within the pits of Chambers’ choreographed cacophony of sophistication, queer masculinity, and libertarianism.

Dissected into three acts, REVENGE gives a whole fast journey. The following comedown is heavy, the load of material seeps into the bloodstream. The atmospheric trance begins outdoors the auditorium. Cathedral Hygiene’s soundscape throbs, a nod to the discography of French disco-pioneer, Amanda Lear. The voyeured enter; a suited man leans in opposition to the racked seating, a level of nonchalance, loss of life oscillates the iris. The accompaniment whirs, rising and going unnoticed. The destructive area in staging and motion solely additional fuels the haze. Clad in stretched black-tarpaulin, the area boasts a basement-like atmosphere. Themes of formality and the divine realm are advised through the position of two golden goblets and aromatic incense upstage, framing the mound of tossed-tarp, an altar.

The piece commences, the wailing undercurrents of formality and faith on the forefront, as Richard Pye and Joseph Gray Adams bow earlier than the altar, spinal cords undulating by thick air. Their actions waver between vaporous and viscous. Gurning and glitching, Pye costs by the area, manipulating our consideration and their ridged enterprise swimsuit; the viscosity of the darkish air is sliced as their splayed fingers coil and splinter. Inner battle, flailing limbs, every cyclical thrashing is dragged again to centre; a contorted torso, spiralling with a skulking power, spiked by a robust manipulation of breath. Adams dictates the area with grace and grit, in moments of stillness their spectacular presence most eerily pertinent. In expression and stance, the wracked innerworkings of a posh thoughts are teased.

A potent play on energy dynamics, already unclothed, Pye undresses Adams, by no means averting their eyes. Actions slip into the sultry and luxurious with the musculature of the unclad our bodies sculpting every gesture. Teetering with pressure, Pye and Adams shatter their stillness as they start to wrestle, pinning each other to the tarpaulin.

A brand new motion panorama is imagined. Blood-soaked our bodies, flesh-to-flesh, Pye and Adams roll over each other; their our bodies melting, sliding throughout the tarpaulin, birthing a brand new motion vocabulary. Languishing in seas of deep maroon, the pair slip right into a hypnotic rhythm, a bloody entanglement, foetal-like. Metamorphosing right into a stature akin to that of Frankenstein; the feel of this new motion vocabulary is palpable and pliable. Pye and Adams envelop each other, suffocating below the red-district bulbs. The reveal of Popperface: uncovered from his tarp-tomb, Chambers undulates, slithering beneath the second-hand smoke. Snaking to standing, all three bathe within the dissonances of Hygiene’s now overcoming soundscape. The previous fifty minutes evaporate because the lights fade to black; silence spikes the auditorium. Enrapturing and entrancing, REVENGE instructions area and time. Ritual and faith, life and loss of life: throbbing beneath the pores and skin these themes pulsate with a raging depth.

You will discover out extra about THE REVENGE OF POPPERFACE / Gareth Chambers here.