It’s a Jewish custom to cover mirrors and black out windows for the seven days of mourning following a death. ‘Sitting shiva’ brings people together to sit without thought of themselves; the lack of mirrors denying vanity and bringing the focus inwards.
This is the state in which we find bereaved husband Dave and his daughter Sam. They’re unable to talk or even look at each other. Each is trapped in their own deep grief. There’s a sense of the past all around: the trace of long gone pictures on the walls, nostalgic 1970s music, a Jack Warner movie on the telly. And there are ghosts, two women, one for each mourner, to help them find a way through their grief and ultimately to find each other.
Stopgap tells this story in a dance of two parts, performed initially against James Lewis’s clever, stacked set of living room furniture and high windows, with lighting designed by Chahine Yavroran (continuing a long relationship with the company). David Toole, known for his work with DV8 and Candoco, and here in his fourth collaboration with Stop Gap, plays Dave.
He’s hulking, moody and uncommunicative, distracting himself with coffee from a flask and an old film, trying to avoid his teenage daughter’s brewing romance. Hannah Sampson’s engaging Sam is every inch the uppity, hormone fuelled teen, unable to stay still except when gripped by grief. This gap between them is partly filled by the two ghosts (Meritxell Checa/Elia Lopez and Amy Butler) whose synchronised movements and similar appearance makes this an interesting quartet. When Sam’s friend Tom (Christian Brinklow – all sharp shapes and break-beat rhythms), and Death’s servant Chock arrive, the stage is suddenly full with competing energy and style. You sense that something is going to give.
Chock is a taunting sprite, emphatically performed by Nadenh Poan, flinging his lower limbs about with abandon, making remarkable use of his remarkable body. It’s a given with Stop Gap that physical difference is celebrated and exploited. In the second part of the show, when all the dancers work as an ensemble and fill the floor, this strength is most in evidence.
The narrative of the final episode is hard to read from the choreography alone: it’s lovely to look at, if over extended, but less clear what it is trying to say. I’m all for dance just happening for its own sake, but there is definitely a story trying to come out here. I wonder too who Dave is talking to when he describes his wife’s accident? If not himself it must be us, but I’ve no idea where we come into this, especially when addressed directly by Chock. Are we being warned of death’s approach too? It’s something to ponder as the talented cast take their bows.
The piece was devised by the company with artistic director Lucy Bennett, and credit should go to whoever suggested and choreographed the performed interval. Deconstructing a set and moving artists around a stage has never been so gripping. David Toole is unceremoniously tipped off a table top into a chair and the floor tape is wrenched up with a satisfying rip. Everyone moves in silence fitting seamlessly into a complex pattern. It’s an interval that no-one wants to leave – that’s a tribute indeed.
Stopgap Dance Company’s The Enormous Room was presented at Brighton Festival 2018 as part of Caravan, a biennial showcase of England’s independent theatre-makers.