Fri 14 Feb: Mad Jacks Theatre, Sarah Kent and Occasional Dance and Yoncali McCredie

Mad Jacks Theatre Acne Romeo

Sarah Kent/Occasional Dance A Strange Intimacy

Yoncali McCredie Another Day Of Loving

This Friday evening of Resolution was a night of duets. With humour and juxtapositions, each played with the uncertainties of relationships and the casual bond that exists between two.

Sarah Kent and AndyNewman enter the stage, passing each other sincerely. Their first moment of contact is a hug, which although initially loving, becomes abstract and strange and I sometimes struggled with the inconsistency of the sections. While repeated switches in lighting and mood eventually become somewhat predictable, the ‘roller coaster ride’ of relationships was communicated vividly in this ever-changing piece. Unveiling the uncertainty that exists when doubt prevails love, the connection between the two is stoic and absurd, with the audience providing plenty of smiles and laughs in reaction to A Strange Intimacy’s comedic flair.

‘She is a carefree ballerina, and they are trying to eat their lunch’ was my initial impression of Mad Jacks Theatre’s portrayal of SamSmith’s Acne Romeo. In this chaotic duet plastic is a blanket, red pens are erotic, and a quiet kind of intimacy is everchanging. Whilst the authenticity of the relationship occasionally faltered, the piece was undoubtedly bold and eccentric. Who are these people and what do they mean to each other?

Another Day of Loving was a classic and physical story of intimacy and loss. Flowers lay still on an empty stage; the sound of tweeting birds accompany the entrance of the final duet of the evening. MayaYoncali begins a series of quick flourishing arm movements, she is a bird about to take flight. Although after a dramatic shift in lighting, the piece is calm no more, the movement becomes aggressive and abrupt. With the disgruntled stumbling needing more development, the story was over too soon.

Megan Harman

Valentine’s Day is not all roses. The three duets tonight articulate the glitches and complexities of relationships in myriad ways.

To the menacing music of Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights, Sarah Kent and Andy Newman cross the stage towards each other repeatedly. Each time they meet they enact a different facet of their struggling, searching relationship: a tender hug, a rough push, all-out wrestling. In A Strange Intimacy, the couple’s interactions constantly flip from tenderness and care to downright meanness and manipulation that touch and shock. From a varied pallet of movement styles - soft, lyrical posturing to jarring clowning - they articulate jealousy, revulsion, sensuality and compassion. There are many ideas here and it's hard to keep up, but Kent has created a dynamic exploration of what’s possible in a partnership between two mature dancers.

Matisse Ciel and Laurie Ward’s romance is intentionally messy and beguilingly intriguing. Ward’s voluptuous, extrovert physicality as she invades Ciel’s space, contrasts sharply with Ciel’s quiet, introspection. Ward rolls seductively on a mattress, while Ciel watches her puzzled. After this crazy introduction, they navigate their love, lust and need for each other in unpredictable choreography by Daze Hingorani. The lovers’ radically different performance styles fleetingly embody vulnerability, pleasure and pain against the dramatic lighting of a violent, unforgiving world. A dance interpretation of director Sam Smith’s play, Acne Romeo feels like an experimental extract of something more substantial. Nevertheless, it offers a provocative, gender-expansive dance contribution that feels important and exciting.

In Another Day of Loving, the bunches of flowers strewn across the stage look ominous. Tweeting birds and soft lighting set the scene for the romantic loved-up couple, Maya Yoncali and Andy McCredie. Sickly sweet, Yoncali flutters gracefully like a bird while McCredie watches adoringly. But suddenly it all goes wrong. She clutches him desperately but he retreats stumbling off stage, convulsing uncontrollably. Yoncali collapses in a heap of frenzied Bauschian gestures, head thrown back, outstretched pleading arms, her body racked with grief over losing him. Cinematic lighting and staging, theatrical pathos and evocative movement culminate in the riveting storytelling of Youncalis’s choreography and directing by both. Although compressed by time and unsubtle in parts, their nuanced tragedy touches on the engulfing sadness of lost love.

Jo Leask