Mechanical Eye

Image: Frank Cecconi 

Mechanical Eye is an expressionist take on the modern obsession with images, self-documentation and their impact on communication. Like most contemporary dance pieces, especially when they play with abstract ideas, the theme is simply a springboard for the piece to take flight. It is most truly a medium to be felt rather than understood, as any literal meaning will, no doubt, be lost on many. Regardless of whether or not you ‘get it’, it is a mesmerizing experience.

Using the Chapel Off Chapel gallery one could almost argue, quite successfully, that this is almost an art installation with bodies rather than canvas. Experienced and talented Brazilian choreographer Gregory Lorenzutti, has cast his biological eye towards an intensely energetic cast whose chemistry crackle and burn under his minimalist direction. With each performer clad in white/cream costumes like the space itself, and using only minimal light, it reminds one of Peter Brook’s Midsummer Night’s Dream from the 70s, which brought all focus directly onto the actors, the same principal works again 40 years on. The aesthetic never seems stark or one-dimensional.

Lorenzutti’s great gift is that he knows when to let the piece speak for itself. He has clearly given his dancers the parameters to let fly with their own personalities, each of them pulsating with angst and melancholy of their own making, filtered through their breathtaking technique.

The technique on display here is worth its own review alone as each dancer handles the sharp switches from frenetic to fluid with ease. Maud Leger and Sarah Fiddaman are particular standouts, while Lorenzutti himself is a powerful presence, able to seemingly change the atmosphere in a room with the simplest of movements. There is never a moment where the piece could be described as anything less than lyrical, especially when pared with Tim Humphrey and Madeleine Flynn’s epic and provocative sound design.

The expressionistic ideas are hard to penetrate and I do not even pretend to totally understand it, at least not intellectually, but the hypnotic power of the performers and imagination of their choreographer are simply too much to ignore. The entire experience is like a sitting in the subconscious of a disturbed romantic feeling their love and pain intertwine. It is a dense, fascinating and emotional ride. Mechanical Eye’s simplicity doesn’t hinder its ability to ask huge questions, or perhaps rather suggest them. It is sharp, powerful and mercifully short. In one word – mesmerizing or in another – haunting.