Edinburgh Fringe 2024

Golem

Julien Carlier Abis Company

Genre: Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre, Hip hop/breakin’, Movement

Venue: Assembly Dance Base

Festival: Edinburgh Fringe

Low Down

Review

The performance is advertised as ‘an artistic dialogue between dancer and choreographer Julien Carlier and 75-year-old sculptor Mike Sprogis’, but at first they start out quite separate. Carlier (born 1985) is using white gaffer tape to mark out a large rectangle on the stage area. Sprogis meanwhile stands on a chair, while a recording of how he starts his day in his workshop plays. He begins eventually to look at his hands and very consciously turns them so he can inspect them from all sides. Then, equally slowly, he begins miming, hitting a chisel with a hammer to carve out a form from rock. The sound for this comes from percussionist Tom Malmendier who provides live music throughout with drums and samples. Carlier finishes taping out the stage area and slowly warms up his body. While Sprogis has been explaining how he starts his work day, Carlier shows us how he begins his.

The movements of both artists get quicker. Malmendier’s accompaniment becomes faster and stronger and seemlessly the warm up evolves into a choreography. Carlier’s background is Hip-Hop and breakdance and so his choreography draws heavily on that. While the focus is on Carlier, Sprogis steps down from his chair and moves to the middle section of the stage that is covered in plastic sheeting on which stands a black builder’s bucket and what looks like a huge cushion. When Sprogis removes the cover it becomes clear that this is in fact a large lump of red clay, its colour matching the jumper Carlier is wearing. Sprogis pours some water on the clay and starts working it. Carlier leaves the focus of the audience to the sculptor at work and withdraws to the back of the room, sits on the chair and removes his shoes. Malmendier starts playing his drums ultimately forcing Carlier into action. Isolated arm movements intensify until the impulse to move has taken over his whole body and he performs a breathtaking breakdance.

Exhausted Carlier rests on the floor. Sprogis is finished with his work. He turns it up so we can all see it is a human face. Malmendier switches from hitting his kit to playing a undefined drone on his synth. Sprogis changes the expression of the face by putting pressure on its head. It is amazing how life-like the clay face looks. It seems to feel, to go through emotions, when its features are contorted simply through the steady pressure coming from its masters hands. Sprogis has become godly in his power over the clay.

While Carlier keeps on dancing Sprogis willfully destroys his creation only to cradle the heavy clay like a father who is holding his dead baby. There is a yearning and a longing for something that was wanted, but not fit for this world. His face is pained. Sprogis tries to knead it into a more manageable shape and then rolls it clockwise in an outward spiral around the stage. Carlier starts crawling, anticlockwise, around them. Whenever he crosses the clay the similarities of its colour to Carlier’s jumper is very apparent. The music, by Simon Carlier, is now synth and drums, which becomes less and less until Malmendier stops drumming. What’s left is the electronic drone that changes into a more melodic sound. There is a moment, when Sprogis is looking down on Carlier holding out his hand, that is very reminiscent of the creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. This image is supported by the music that has an angelic vibe.

Sprogis rests while Carlier gets up and starts running. He runs faster and faster in his, the counter clockwise direction. After a few rounds he takes his jumper off and is now bare chested, but he keeps running. Ultimately he drops to the floor utterly exhausted right next to the bucket and drinks some water and poors some over himself. Another recording of Sprogis plays. He talks about a toy car he got one Christmas and how it excited him and how much it inspired his fantasy. He got more toy cars later, but the level of satisfaction of playing with those never equalled the joy he got from his very first toy car. He had no more reason to imagine.

Sprogis starts to speak. He talks how he met Carlier, who having caught his breath is chipping in from the sidelines. They both talk about childhood memories. As artists they have never stopped playing. This gives the impulse to Sprogis to push over Carlier and then start slowly to sculpture him. With minimalist percussion accompaniment this scene becomes a duet. The powers shift. The maker-parent who has brought the golem-child into this work is literally carried by his creature. The drums are silent and only a jungle soundscape plays

This is an unexpected but intelligent show. There is a lot there that is highly symbolic and much that lingers with the spectator even long after they have left the theatre. Carlier is clearly a sensitive creative who enjoys breaking the barriers around his discipline. I like to walk into a show with only the information the artists decided to give out. That way my impression is untarnished. Therefore I didn’t have ‘breakdance’ on my bingo card for this show. It was a pleasant surprise. The way Carlier has developed this art form to become a form of dance theater is amazing. I found out later that this creative process was entirely self-lead and all his theatrical skills were self-taught. Clearly a very hardworking artist who honed his craft through dedication.

I couldn’t find any more information on Sprogis bar what he told us in the show. He is now in the last quarter of his life, but clearly the physically hard work of being a sculptor has kept him very fit. In the duet he is more than a fitting partner, showing an affinity for physical movement. He looks like an aging contemporary dancer and the skills are well matched to even out any differences in training.

Personally I really like seeing different generations with a large age gap working together, finding similarities coming together through their art and creating something new. I wish more younger artists would be this brave and work with their parents’ or grandparents’ generation as equals to create such interesting work.

Golem was created in 2019 and this revival is the first time Julien Carlier and Abis Company have come to the Edinburgh Fringe. Carlier, who started to choreograph in 2015, has since produced an average of one production a year. I am sure Edinburgh will see more of this exciting artist in years to come.

In Jewish, but especially Yiddish folklore a golem is a anthropomorphic creature made of mud or clay that is created by a man close to God. They are in general obedient and mute creatures used for tedious chores. In some legends the golem becomes violent and turns on his master. While most Central European golem stories were written down in the 19th century, it is often claimed they are based on true stories from the middle ages. The original golem was of course the biblical Adam and because he was created by God, he became a human.

Published August 16, 2024 by Tamara Stein