FringeReview Scotland 2024
EPHEMERAL ECHOES
What we go to the theatre for…
Genre: Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre
Venue: Tramway Theatre
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
This is the start of something big which has a narrative around Hansel and Gretel. Choreographed in an unbelievable short time period, it promises much more. The production values alone are good enough to show creativity between these three companies could bring something quite special.
Review
If funding has become something of a political hot potato for the Scottish Arts scene of late, spare a thought for an international collaboration which draws Scotland, England and Columbia together but because of funding issues, had to recruit a Dutch dimension. As the opening piece of the final night of Gathered Together, Ephemeral Echoes had plenty to be said before it began, but left more questions to be answered, once it was finished. Produced over a whirlwind day and a half, and due to the lack of funding to get the band together properly, this still managed the wow factor.
It had coherence when it had no reason to have, whimsy when disappointment could have left it bereft and promise. It would be wrong to think that if they can get to this level with only a day and a half, what do they need a proper rehearsal time for, but we should be asking if they can do this in a day and half what the hell could they achieve with longer gestations, thought and opportunity?
This is the key element of any international festival. The vibrancy of rubbing against each other is one thing, the ideas sparked between you that can lead to the next project and the next exploration of common agendas is what makes it exciting. People can get all hot and bothered about skill share, but the art’s the thing. And here we got some nicely imagined interplay between four collaborative partners which was great to witness.
Beginning with one figure hidden under a cardboard box with money pouring out of it, they were joined by another, from there the unmasking of who was spreading the cash was the springboard for some deftly delivered set pieces. It is an interesting part of the process that the cash we chase can be the hope for Nirvana, but end with a nightmare in a metaphorical witch’s house.
Within the whole, however there was a degree of challenge that felt, like and imagined a beginning. We had the trust between performers as they worked each partnership out and added to the thoughtful idea of collaboration. As a physical metaphor it worked really, really well.
The soundscape too had that drifting melancholy at times but also that throbbing certainty of feeling like we had Hansel and Gretel, not in person, but in spirit.
As a fitting end to the four days, and a springboard for the next in two years’ time this worked a treat. The treat to come is what shall certainly bring us intriguingly back.
