Saturday 18 October 1997

Raised by Wolves by Handspan Theatre, Oct 18, 1997


Raised by Wolves by Handspan Theatre
Victoria Dock Shed 14 until Oct 21, 1997
Reviewed by KH around 17 Oct, 1997

There is a moment when we realise we have turned into our parents. Mine was during Raised by Wolves when my uppermost thought was, "TURN DOWN THE MUSIC! MY EARS ARE BLEEDING!"

Handspan and director David Bell have collaborated with popular band Regurgitator in this project that is essentially a rave party plus some visual theatre. There are a few extraordinary elements. The first is the location in a disused shed at Victoria Dock under a full moon.

Inside, hordes of mainly very young people milled about anticipating where the action might begin. Banks of video screens, coke machines and scaffolding broke up the space. Shipping containers acted as platforms for puppeteers, actors and the live band. Huge cherry-pickers decked with fluorescent lights, prowled the space.

 The walls are chequered with more multi-coloured fluoro tubes which form the words "LIVE' then later "DIE". At one end of the shed a huge demon head with spinning eyes screamed at us. At the other, a flaming Picasso portrait burned.

Ben Cobham's lighting design and the giant cockroach puppets were the highlights. As spectacle, however, this performance misses the mark. It draws on a style popular in Europe with La Fura del Baus (Spain) and Titanick (Germany) but, whereas these companies draw together disparate images, text and sound to create a cohesive whole, Raised by Wolves is dissonant and chaotic.

Any dialogue that remains audible over the ear-smashing noise level is unintelligible or puerile. Actors Lee Russell, Megan Cameron and Justin Ratcliffe, wander about aimlessly, wrapped in plastic, attacked by cockroaches or as post-holocaust derelicts.
The curtains and metal screens could have created some interesting snatches of physical imagery but without context, content or thematic links, the whole deteriorates into hysterical ravings, meaningless wanderings and NOISE.

The very young in the crowd seemed to enjoy the dancing and the unpredictability of the piece so perhaps it is a matter of taste or of age. It is a pity because Handspan has done some spectacular work over the years.ˆ

KATE HERBERT

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