Scintilatingly strange

By Caitlin McGrane

Billed as a ‘dance of the heart’, Janine Proost’s Potential will go down in my memory as one of the stranger theatrical performances I have ever experienced, and I mean that as a compliment. The audience is lead in through the doors of Studio One at the Northcote Town Hall to find our four performers (Janine Proost, Natalie Abbott, Rebecca Jensen and Amelia McQueen) lying splayed on the ground covered in a blanket of playdoh. The four women are wearing gold lycra outfits, and invite the audience to take some of the playdoh heaped onto their chests…

What follows is 60 minutes of dance and yoga that will leave you pleasingly puzzled. It was clear that the inspiration came from the body, but that it came from the heart wasn’t always obvious to me. There was certainly a lot of feminine imagery (a vignette of a mid-birth playdoh baby springs to mind), which is always interesting. I loved how the energy of the performance mirrored that of a yoga class: starting with slow movements, breathing, simple postures and building to a crescendo of occasionally painful movements across the stage that were at times quite difficult to watch. There is a lot of quiet in the performance, and it beautifully counterpoised the manic cacophony of noise that made up part of the third act.

Special and particular mention must go to Matt Adey whose lighting design was spectacular and very evocative. The harsh stage lights illuminated the faces of the performers in ways that caused them to be at once beautiful and pained (the kind of facial expression one can only get from an hour of yoga).

For my first Melbourne Fringe Festival show this year, it was quite an experience. I’m very excited to see what Proost comes up with next and will be first in line to see it.

Potential is on every night until Sunday 5 October at 7:30pm at the Northcote Town Hall. Tickets are $26 at http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/potential/