Saturday 14th February 2009

Glenn, Anne, Alexis and Beatrice met to see Gaijin-San: Mr Foreigner at 20:00 in the 'Loft:Y Llofft' temporary theatre space at Chapter Art Centre Cardiff last Saturday.

Chapter brochure: Gaijin-San return to Chapter with a devised physical dance theatre performance, exploring home and belonging, heritage and refuge, asylum and detention. The company fuses text, movement and projection in this dark and visceral response to the powerful subject matter. A collaboration with Welsh poet and playwright Patrick Jones and artist association Dbini Industries, the work features five male performers from the UK and South Africa.
£6/£4 www.mrforeigner.co.uk

In the bar afterwards : We all agreed the event was well worth attending, and had independently noted some marked similarities with Paperwork in respect of the suspension of bodies on ladders and the analogous meaning this conveyed. A high standard of performance was compromised by the temporary theatre space. We felt there was also a dichotomy in the work between figurative illustration and the abstract forms of gesture and movement.

Two talking heads - a polemic dialogue on migration was projected onto the upper platform of two closed and standing step ladders - supported by a performer, this we felt was clever - a gimmick even, but it worked well.

The abstract elements were what we all responded to most strongly and most suited our sense of the subject matter - a simple white space cube used in description of home / personal space - and and excellent final section; Step ladders were assembled diagonally, open on their side, from front left to backstage right. The 4 main performers created an inverse sweep arrangement crossing the ladders to front right of stage. Movements were short repetitive sequences, to and fro forward and back, with sharp kicks and turns rolls and in unison jumps and other times out of sync.

The way the space was used and the abstract nature of the movement was somehow the most effecting in the entire work. Alexis found the words of Patrick Jones too didactic. This work required far more space and more precise and considered lighting. It also needed to focus on the abstract, as exemplified by the final sequence.

Alexis also noted how different the two Caucasian performers and two black performers were at the level of the body expression - a racial characteristic and distinction. In this way the evening had been a prompt to reminded us of the expressive and abstract power of Corporality.

GD