Powerful Trouble review: Junk Ensemble’s exploration is sharp in its message, wonderfully rambling in its telling

Powerful Trouble

RHA Gallery

★★★★☆

There is a strange contradiction at the heart of Junk Ensemble’s Powerful Trouble. The directors and choreographers (and twins) Jessica and Megan Kennedy gave over most of the creation of their latest work to fellow artists. Aideen Barry, Olwen Fouéré, Jesse Jones, Vicky Langan and Planningtorock were invited to “respond, interrogate and celebrate the idea of the witch as a symbol of dissidence”. What that loosening of artistic constraints has produced is probably the most Junk Ensemble-like work in the company’s repertoire: an exploration that is sharp in its message but wonderfully rambling in its telling.

And the audience members are central to that telling. Words are abandoned after entering the darkness of the large studio. Left to their own devices and merely following the gentle clues of lighted matches, the viewers create a series of tentatively shuffling murmurations that can suddenly quicken to encircle one of the many small performance areas where action has emerged from the half-light.

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Any one of the six dancers can suddenly appear from within the crowd and begin dancing. Salma Ataya, Robyn Byrne, Justine Cooper, Lucia Kickham, Julie Koenig and Yumi Lee split and coalesce throughout the 90 minutes into various arrangements, from solos to sextets.

Within this setting the audience doesn’t just create a physical counterpoint but also becomes a manifestation of conformist society, looking to others for guidance and direction. The witches are among us and emerge from within the crowd, so the audience chooses to isolate them once discovered, like those independent women within a puritan church, state or economy.

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This is how the witches are depicted. Not cackly, green-faced and warty stereotypes but true dissidents and self-knowing women refusing to accept their marginalisation in the face of patriarchal prejudice that is fuelled by a fear of their sexuality and empowerment.

Fire is one element that plays an important role, evoking a primal environmentalism. Other objects awaken memories, intentionally or not, of past works in the company’s canon: sand (Drinking Dust), apples (The Falling Song) or long stretches of string that are weaved into a giant snare (Dusk Ahead). All of these works explore inbetweenness, suggesting another layer of reference within Powerful Trouble.

Rock-solid egalitarianism is demonstrated through passages of unison movement. On a large rectangle of sand the six dancers repeat a unison phrase in four counts with stomping jumps, lunging torsos and swinging arms that scoop up sand. Eventually the movement becomes more frenzied as the phrase compresses to three counts, the display of solidarity remaining steadfast.

The percussionist Caitríona Frost is an almost constant presence through the various dances, heard but mostly unseen. Aptly chosen sounds add to the eerily ethereal atmosphere, while at other times she drives the momentum with ground-shuddering beats on various drums.

Contributions from the design team supplement the compelling performances, but the strength of Powerful Trouble lies in the complete experience rather than the individual elements. However, the conclusion in an adjoining studio, while unusual and surprising, doesn’t feel particularly satisfying.

Continues at the RHA Gallery, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, until Sunday, October 15th