Review: DU21 Dimitris Papaioannou, Transverse Orientation, Sadler's Wells ★★★★★
A collage of ingenious and arresting tableaux, Dimitris Papaioannou's Transverse Orientation at Sadler's Wells marks the high point of Dance Umbrella 21
DU21 Dimitris Papaioannou Transverse Orientation. Photo: Julian Mommert
Dance it definitely is not, though it's part of Dance Umbrella 21; but if surreal theatre is your cup of tea you'll find much to enjoy in Dimitris Papaioannou's Transverse Orientation. Billed as following 'the human compulsion to find meaning on the journey of life', its more immediate challenge to audiences is to find meaning in its seemingly disconnected, though endlessly inventive and often bemusing, tableaux.
Better, perhaps, to go with the flow. A multi-disciplinary artist possessed of a cultural background that extends well beyond his native Greece, Dimitris Papaioannou has created a work rich with symbolic imagery and references, playing with light and shadow and at every step distorting and defeating expectations.
Central to Transverse Expectation is the bull, a key figure in many mythologies and cultures, from Ancient Greece to modern-day Spain and beyond. An impressively realistic effigy of a black bull is brought on early in the piece. Manipulated by the performers, he shakes his head, clumps around and refuses all attempts at control until faced with a naked man.
Nudity features prominently in this, as in previous Papaioannou works, whether for purely aesthetic reasons, as in the stark contrast between some performers' preternaturally white bodies and the plain black suits worn by others, or for narrative reasons, as when the bull is becalmed by the defenceless and unthreatening man in all his naked simplicity. It is also integral, for example, to Papaioannou's recreation of one of the most prolific themes in Western art, the rape of the maiden Europa by Zeus disguised as a bull (pictured top).
The piece starts with a group of insect-like figures seemingly fascinated by a spluttering neon bar set on a back wall.
DU21 Dimitris Papaioannou, Transverse Orientation 2021. Photo: Julian Mommert
Armed with stepladders, their jerky movements reminiscent of silent comedy movies, they attempt to fix it, and they do, but only temporarily and nothing comes of it. Soon, we're on to another sequence, and that, too, gives way to a seemingly unrelated other…and another…
A woman gets entangled in the frame of a folding bed; the bull returns, but even when not centre-stage he stands in the wings, a silent witness. Or he comes back in the shape of a man wearing a bull mask gently to lick the face of another who’s just been violently unmanned.
Using big squeaking polystyrene blocks, the performers feverishly build a tall structure, reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, and like the biblical construction designed to collapse spectacularly.
And after the performers have dismantled the stage, we’re left with a scene that could be a strand at low tide, with a man lying languorously on a deckchair, a reading that’s simultaneously undermined by another man with mop and bucket attempting rather forlornly to mop the sodden floor.
Papaioannou’s eight performers are indefatigable and deserving of the highest plaudits.
Better, perhaps, to go with the flow. A multi-disciplinary artist possessed of a cultural background that extends well beyond his native Greece, Dimitris Papaioannou has created a work rich with symbolic imagery and references, playing with light and shadow and at every step distorting and defeating expectations.
Central to Transverse Expectation is the bull, a key figure in many mythologies and cultures, from Ancient Greece to modern-day Spain and beyond. An impressively realistic effigy of a black bull is brought on early in the piece. Manipulated by the performers, he shakes his head, clumps around and refuses all attempts at control until faced with a naked man.
Nudity features prominently in this, as in previous Papaioannou works, whether for purely aesthetic reasons, as in the stark contrast between some performers' preternaturally white bodies and the plain black suits worn by others, or for narrative reasons, as when the bull is becalmed by the defenceless and unthreatening man in all his naked simplicity. It is also integral, for example, to Papaioannou's recreation of one of the most prolific themes in Western art, the rape of the maiden Europa by Zeus disguised as a bull (pictured top).
The piece starts with a group of insect-like figures seemingly fascinated by a spluttering neon bar set on a back wall.
DU21 Dimitris Papaioannou, Transverse Orientation 2021. Photo: Julian Mommert
Armed with stepladders, their jerky movements reminiscent of silent comedy movies, they attempt to fix it, and they do, but only temporarily and nothing comes of it. Soon, we're on to another sequence, and that, too, gives way to a seemingly unrelated other…and another…
A woman gets entangled in the frame of a folding bed; the bull returns, but even when not centre-stage he stands in the wings, a silent witness. Or he comes back in the shape of a man wearing a bull mask gently to lick the face of another who’s just been violently unmanned.
Using big squeaking polystyrene blocks, the performers feverishly build a tall structure, reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, and like the biblical construction designed to collapse spectacularly.
And after the performers have dismantled the stage, we’re left with a scene that could be a strand at low tide, with a man lying languorously on a deckchair, a reading that’s simultaneously undermined by another man with mop and bucket attempting rather forlornly to mop the sodden floor.
Papaioannou’s eight performers are indefatigable and deserving of the highest plaudits.
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| What | Review: DU21 Dimitris Papaioannou, Transverse Orientation, Sadler's Wells |
| Where | Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Angel (underground) |
| When |
21 Oct 21 – 23 Oct 21, 19:30. Dur.: pne hour 45 mins no interval |
| Price | £RETURNS ONLY |
| Website | Click here to book |