FringeReview Scotland 2026
Dictations, The Heart of the Sea
Moniqux Ensemble
Genre: Dance and Movement Theatre
Venue: Tramway Theatre Glasgow
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Through a dynamic fusion of movement, voice and understanding the space in which you perform, Dictations took us from vocal expression through physical engagement with voice to a powerful theatrical experience. Working in solo, dual and then group movement pieces sound is used to heighten the physical connection between the noises we make and the movements we take. The artistic whole was an explosion of colour and joy of being able to put your hand in another’s and feel as though your support is always going to be there.
Review
Created to make collaborative dance and music work together, this is an ensemble who knows the entire clock face, not just what time it is. Beginning with voice it seeks to recreate the emergence of a culture out of the shadows and the past. It takes that past, celebrates it but adds new dimensions in lighting, costume and sound which reminds us that this is a heritage deep in the soul.
The manifesto reproduced on the seats, talks of lived experience, cultural plurality and an understanding of performance as a space for exchange and reflection. This is physically in front of us. There is a nod to the way we have been absorbing this incredible heritage from Africa which has landed on this shore and you can see where Kemono L-Riot has given the impetus through his company THREE60 alongside Marios Ento-Engkolo who just a few short weeks ago was part of Buzzcut with Dualism, a three year project that saw him perform his own back story. That fusion and collaboration is incredibly vibrant. Ou can feel it giving and not taking agency which is so special.
Dictations has a fluid structure with song taking us from one element to the other. The metaphor of the sea acts as the fluidity but also the mechanism over which this artistic dynamism has travelled.
It serves as a creative counterpoint to the idea that we want to stop the boats. Here is probably the best example I can think of, of handing out outboard motors and asking people to continue with the boats.
The music felt collective alongside dance and movement where people would be apart from the collective or they would be all together, solo or working in pairs had heart within it that really spoke across the footlights.
It was given a collective direction, but you got the feeling it was all pulling in one direction with a solid skipper in director Mele Broomes. But what stuck out in so many ways were the fusion of costumes with clear connections to a time past and the effect on the present through tunning visual gender and colour fluidity. Hats off, or on to Zephyr Liddell as the costume designer but also shout out to Catriona Charlton and Barbara Kolasinski and Emily Smit-Dicks as well as Izzy Jones Rigby, Sophie Pitt and Saehee Simmons, who as a grouping created something that drew you towards it. The use of smoke and lighting meant that at times you couldn’t see them and yet this was a psychedelic explosion of expression. Physically it suggested, this is who I could be and should be seen as. I am not going to hide. I’m not going to be in the distance. I refuse to be continually in the shadows. But I will find times when I shall explode in front of you and you will pay me attention only because you should and we should.
The lighting was well imagined, and Dominic Falcon takes credit.
This was a theory that had its debut and what an impressive debut it was.
