We went to the local theatre last night. We had tickets to see "
At Swim, Two Boys" – a dance work produced by Earthfall, in collaboration with Jamie O’Neill, who wrote
the book of the same name. The book is huge and complex. It is set around the time of the Easter Uprising in Ireland (1916), and concerns the love emerging between two teenage boys, while reflecting that through the society, and in particular the character of Anthony MacMurrough, who is a less than disinterested observer.
With such a scope, it was inevitable that the dance piece had to cleave to the central image of the book – two boys meeting on the shore and swimming – and ditch practically all of the rest. With just two dancers, how could it be otherwise. The Uprising was hinted at through the use of film, and formed the mainspring of the dance’s climax.
The staging was very well done – there was real water, and plenty of it. We were in the front row, and got sprayed a number of times by the dancers. Music was provided by two musicians who created a sound palette worthy of an orchestra.
This was not classical dance – this was grittily physical, acrobatic choreography, in the style of
DV8. I enjoyed it, although it was less to Martin’s taste.
The subject matter seemed to have attracted the attention of the local gay male population as well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many gay male couples sitting in an audience in Gouda before…
After the performance, we got chatting to the director of the theatre (Martin knows her quite well, since he has had a number of performances of his ballet school held in the theatre). She invited us into the main auditorium of the theatre where the
Nederlands Dans Theater were just about to perform their final piece in their programme:
Chapeau. This was much more to Martin’s taste – a witty ballet celebrating Queen Beatrix’s well-known love of hats. I enjoyed it as well, the choreographer Jiri Kilian has produced a sugar and spice bonbon fit for a queen (and queens).
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