Dance Review: Mortal Engine

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 09:24

MORTAL ENGINE **** PLAYHOUSE

EDINBURGH in August always holds the promise of discovery, the hope that you'll walk into a theatre and find something unique. Rarely does it happen, but the arrival of Australian dance company Chunky Move heralded just such a find.

There are many words you could use to describe Mortal Engine, but perhaps the most fitting is a simple "wow". Not because the dancers are better than anybody else, nor is the choreography more inventive (in fact, the latter could benefit from a little more diversity). No, the thing that sets Mortal Engine apart is the concept – taking the movement of the human body, and translating it into light and sound.

Each wide stretch of the legs or curl of the dancer's body is accompanied by computer-generated lighting, executed in a plethora of ways. Lying on the steeply raked stage, spidery limbs winding around her body, a dancer is framed by a wide black outline. When she moves, it moves. Later, every step a dancer takes sends thousands of tiny light particles scattering across the stage, while another is pinned against the wall, as if being electrocuted, jagged white lines shooting out from her body.

For the most part, it is the dancers who trigger the lighting, with the help of a complex set-up of computers and cameras.

But on two separate occasions they disappear into the background and let the light show take over. Mesmerising patterns cover the stage, sucking us into a vortex of fast movement and sound. When an enormous green laser appears, shining through billowing clouds of dry ice, it is as if we have entered a science fiction film.

Utterly captivating and, that most illusive of theatrical goals, utterly unique.

Until today; 8pm