Review - Picnic

KAGE and 45 Downstairs

Present

PICNIC

Written by Marieke Hardy

Directed, Choreographed and Performed by Gerard Van Dyck

Composed by Alisdair Macindoe

Video and Lighting Consultant – Ben Shaw

18 – 30 August 2015  

45 Flinders Lane

This is a delightful short crisp lyrical work that is great fun from go to woe.   It is the type of sparkling lovely show that one could base a light and happy night out with friends, or that special person you have been meaning to catch up with, on.   It is a delicate sensitive joyful work, for which, Marieke Hardy has written a lovely ‘springboard’ that Gerard Van Dyck has fleshed out.  

Gerard Van Dyck - photo by Jeff Busby

PICNIC opens with the magic of sound and trilling birds that indicate the countryside, and I for one kept thinking of Chekhov, as we were taken along for a picnic - a quirky time in a liminal space with eskys and an eccentric family.  

Van Dyck engages us with anecdote and his charismatic personality.

He is a beautiful expressive lyrical dancer.  His work is joyful, nimble, agile, and has a sense of weightlessness.   In fact the whole ends with a delightful homage to the magic of elevation.

As a fun poetic work highlighting true creative mastery, like all good art, it speaks to the creative urge in the viewer.  I noticed the woman next to me drew two beautiful little birds on the tiny small bit of paper the audience is given to write a love letter.  

Photo - Jeff Busby

Hopefully this specific offer (the love letter) to respond to the work can be ironed out, a bit.   It could be suggested that the love letter everyone writes could be generic and un-gendered and glowing.  So as one leaves the performance space and takes a lucky dip written by someone else it can have a beautiful - neutrality and offer the illusion it was meant for you and you alone.  (The one I picked out with addressed to Bree - so I had no doubt that all the love and passion wasn’t directed to me.)

Photo - Jeff Busby

Grab the opportunity to see this delightful work.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)