Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne.
June 13, 2024.
This is a brave man who asks his audience to listen to a song over and over for an hour while also confronting them with their own mortality.
In this case, Belgian artist Miet Warlop gambled and won. A Song: The History of Theater 4 It’s an exciting event that combines a concert, a carnival and a football final. It’s hilarious, weird, and a thoughtful meditation on the human condition. As such, it charts a path through the absurd and existential, with a distinctly French bent that calls to mind Camus, Beckett and Sartre. Along the way, it detours into vaudeville, Brecht, and Le Page—further adding a ritualistic tone that evokes cultism and glamour.
At the same time, all of the above is (somehow) rolled into a frenzied hour of sweaty physical drama. a song Taking place on an imaginary stage – a stadium, a court, a stage – the “band” simultaneously undergoes rigorous training and performs multiple versions of its single composition. They received strong support from the cheerleaders/ballet dancers and a group of scarf-waving fans in the stands, and were further urged by enthusiastic commentators. Throughout, a colorful flag fluttered overhead, marking something communal. tribe. This could be a sports festival or an arts festival.
But look closer…repetition is not repetition. The cycle repeats, only to collapse again. The suffocating enthusiasm, the determination to exercise, stay healthy and young, lead inexorably towards exhaustion and final collapse. Here we are, happy, but doomed. Colorful, masterful spectacle is a distraction, the noise we use to drown out the constant whisper of the inevitable. a song indeed theater.
Far from descending into despair, however, Wallop’s multi-layered creations are an exercise in sharing. We come together for the show, for the rock band and favorite group, but also to work through our pain and grief. Even in the age of digital distance, we are never truly alone.
Taken simply as a performance, it’s energetic, hilarious and supple. Although the twelve performers and assorted props may distract us, the frenetic nature of the work rarely descends into chaos. if sometimes a song Similar to a riot, this was an obviously well-planned riot.
As for the song, it hovers somewhere in the art-rock, house-pop space, reminding you of bands like Stereolab and Arcade Fire, with a dash of Max Richter and Philip Glass thrown in for good measure. The “One Song” installation works because of the way it transforms and the way its performance is rooted in the athlete’s athletic ability. In this way, it emphasizes the larger arc, from the musicality of muscles to the frailty of exhaustion. Just like us, it falls apart.
The lyrics provide us with early clues to Wallop’s thoughts. The singer performed on a treadmill, singing: “Run for your life ’til you die.”
a song Scanned for a modern circus of absurdity. Very intelligent, but prone to making mistakes. Private, but disguised as mob entertainment. True, you may get lost in the sea of concepts, but you are likely to be attracted by the boldness and elasticity of actions and ideas. A standing ovation echoed the same sentiment.
Author: Paul Ransom Dance information.
