Dead Souls

Magritte meets David Lynch in Carbone 14's extraordinary dance theatre production of shifting images, moods and tones, conceived and directed by Gilles Maheu.

A vacant house becomes the stage for a ritual procession of scenes from various lives spanning generations. Moments of calm are juxtaposed with interludes of surreal frenzy; silent couples eat their soup while crazed lovers stampede across the stage. Several recurring motifs, such as watching; doors opening and closing; imprisonment; bodies suspended from doors and somewhat more metaphysically from light bulbs - help confer a surprisingly strong narrative cohesion. An old man and a stoic child, possibly his granddaughter, act as passive witnesses, at times voyeurs. Just as the house, itself a box of doors, observes and records a human history taking shape.

The remaining six cast members engage in a devastating display of highly stylised ensemble movement and dance. Central to the show's impact is the creative and diverse use of lighting and with minimal dialogue, the inventive use of eccentric sound effects and contrasting music from various cultures.

Many of the sequences work, others don't, and the apocalyptic agony can often edge dangerously close to black comedy such as the ongoing slamming of doors which is initially menacing, ultimately distracting. Demented by passion and drugs, leather-clad lovers upset an old-style dinner party of formally-dressed couples who then tumble about as if subject to a violent wind blowing through the house.

Though self-contained, the images are also interlinked and it is this which achieves the unexpected feeling of narrative unity. A girl dressing at a softly-lit window evokes Degas, even Vermeer. Elsewhere it is more subterranean, and two women gyrate as if in a manic dance of death. Far from erotica, the nudity consolidates an atmosphere of nakedness; of raw emotion despair, exhaustion and the fatalism of Lorca and Brecht. The variety of drug and ritualistic sex sequences interspersed with the ordinary and the domestic are finally undercut by the theme of war. This is an explosive, disciplined, bewildering and shrill kaleidoscope of energy and mixed passions.

Runs until Saturday