Lulu’s Living Room, Apart Again

Review in Issue 16-3/4 | Autumn 2004

In a dark, dark house there is a dark, dark room. And in the dark, dark room there is a dark, dark cupboard. And in the dark, dark cupboard (back-lit and with an opaque glass front so we can see her shape outlined) is a woman... In Apart Again, she and her three companions – one other woman and two men – act out a choreography of love and hate, desire and repression, dream and nightmare.

The show's theme of the puzzling nature of human relationships in general and male-female relationships in particular is relentlessly pursued. There is a satisfying single-mindedness of intention enacted, with movement motifs recurring throughout the piece, and duets recreated in different combinations. There is a distinctly European style to Lulu's Living Room. They make dance-theatre – but it is not Tanztheater. There is a strong influence of French movement theatre (hardly surprising as the choreographer is Frenchwoman Marianne Rouvier Angeli) with more than a touch of Théâtre du Mouvement in its intense physical couplings and a dash of Josef Nadj in its love of boxes, doors and screens, which are fully exploited for physical possibilities by the four performers. Add to this a soupçon of surrealism – and there you have it.

At times dangerous and dysfunctional, at times resigned and reflective. Sometimes heartbreakingly human, sometimes comically animal – just occasionally admirably angelic. The four specimens on display are, ultimately, just like you or me or even them next door.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Jul 2004

This article in the magazine

Issue 16-3/4
p. 27