Wed 11 Feb: Rachel Elderkin, Taylor Lauren Hughes and Wayward Thread

Rachel Elderkin HOURS

Taylor Lauren Hughes Before the After

Wayward Thread Citizens of Grief

A tender duet of two friends journeying through vast sparseness. A bare set, masterfully side-lit by a soft, warm sand-like glow suggests the wilderness. “We are lost,” we hear between engulfing waves crashing through the speakers- the hope of a nearby life-source. Rachel Elderkin and Sara Augieras present strong images of support as they hold poses, carrying and leaning on each other, before wandering on their individual pathways, spiralling like incense smoke, only to come together to be witnessed by each other and held once more. The tension feels internal, a soul-searching of sorts; nevertheless, “[they] push forward anyway.”

Bold and in your face, quite literally. Wayward Thread breaks the fourth wall, and all the rules, including slightly vulgar, unfiltered, oversharing standup amidst impressive contemporary breaking, juxtaposed against classical strings. Sonically, the audience is taken from a music class to a hospital ward where we are medical students observing the spinning, jerking, falling ‘patient’ before us. With much humour, Wayward Thread engages with weighty angles on family dynamics, romantic relationships, future planning and grief. The impact of honesty, delivered raw and authentically was met with laughter, cheers and a standing ovation, as well as some clear discomfort from others.

From stark reality to a dreamlike state, bookended by the retrieving and placing of a single small object, Before the After by Taylor Lauren Hughes features a phantasmagoric mishmash of contemporary, jazz and circus-esque dance styles to an ever-changing soundtrack. Technical flair helmed by no real meaning oscillates from ensemble to solo with dancers melding in and out of one another. A performer in sheer white nightwear seems ghostly under a single spotlight. Like a dream, the performance takes you from place to place without really going anywhere at all and feels like witnessing an embodied doodle.

So'l Jelenke

The evening opened with a feminine piece that evoked Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Two female dancers, with great specificity and physical precision, conveyed a sense of loss, longing, and blockage. The work was poetic and the physical execution was clear, but the overall dramaturgic arc of the piece felt somewhat muted. Although the show delved into feelings of being lost, directionless, and exhausted, it could benefit from stronger structural progression to deepen its impact.

The highlight of the evening was Citizens of Grief by Si Rawlinson. The performance opened with mystical South Asian music, creating an unexpected cultural framing for the mixed-heritage British Chinese performer. What first appeared to be an exploration of identity soon developed into a deeply personal story of survival and the burden of living. The piece proposed that grief is not only tied to loss, but is something we carry constantly as part of being alive. Through a combination of elements that do not usually come together - standup comedy, hip-hop dance set to South Asian music, and themes of grief - the show left the audience with a strong sense of the weight of the lives we all carry.

The evening concluded with Before the After by Taylor Lauren Hughes guiding the audience through an Alice in Wonderland-like world filled with contorted, yogic postures and fluid movements. The structure was clear in its overall trajectory, guiding the audience from beginning to end, yet the central section felt less defined. While the choreography intentionally embraced unpredictability, with their chance-based methods, mid-section development might strengthen the piece in general. Overall, the evening suggested the general impression of the weight of living - the uncertainty of direction, and the question of whether the lives we inhabit feel fully real.

Namoo Chae Lee