Reviews

Irish Times writers review Reverse Psychology at Cow's Lane and Fever at Bewley's Cafe Theatre

REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY, COW'S LANE, DUBLIN

Rain stopped play at the performance of Daghdha's Reverse Psychology on Friday night. The first part of the performance in Cow's Lane had to be abandoned and we trouped back in to Project to see it in comfort. "But remember this," appealed choreographer Yoshiko Chuma in the pouring rain. As it happens we had seen enough of the action on Cows Lane's to imagine its wide panorama and sloping steps while watching the same action in the theatre.

Reverse Psychology is a self-proclaimed 100-year history set in three pieces. It is a sprawling work that contains many familiar recognisable elements that make up Yoshiko Chuma's choreography. Street-wise movement, her metal cubes to frame the action and her concerns with time, depicted through the many clocks and metronomes throughout the performance.

The piece 10,000 Steps (set in Cows Lane) tells three stories set in 1900. Martin Maguire's simple and elegant writing is reflected in movement set in the ever-present cube, which goes beyond displaying the story, but hints at deeper psychological significance.

Scratchy and spluttering old gramophone records and John Scott and Natasha Lohan's short sung phrases add an air of odd nostalgia. In Gear returned to the Project and continued the stories about people with common purpose, but set within a harsher world lit with small fluorescent lights and against a backdrop of a 16mm black and white film.

Colin Dunne's Headfoot featured the entire cast of dancers working with percussive steps. Initially in unison, they pair off into two confronting groups. The counterpoint becomes more complex and for me the piece is about to take off when it stops.

While the full impact was unrealised it gave a taster for what might be achieved in a longer piece.

The final part, Tunnel, is set in the present and future. The black dance floor is rolled up, revealing a white surface, which, along with the black backdrop, is like a negative image of In Gear. Two more cubes are introduced to make up the tunnel and, while the construction of the choreography seems looser than before, it brings about a satisfying conclusion to the evening.

Michael Seaver

FEVER, BEWLEY'S CAFE THEATRE, DUBLIN

I dropped in to Bewley's the other night to hear a tribute to the late Peggy Lee; and talk about déjà vu! There was Susanna DeWrixon looking like a clone of the great singer, singing and swinging in a voice that ranges from the husky-sweet to the diamond-hard, with the kind of technique that conceals itself. This was one creative talent saluting another.

Lee, who died last January, was one of a group of great vocalists to emerge from the Big Bands era. She was a landmark in jazz-derived popular singing, hugely popular with the public and highly respected by her peers. When the arrival of rock'n'roll retired a host of well-known singers, she survived with Sinatra, Bennett and a few others, to rack up a continuously successful career of over 40 years.

She had so many fine recordings that the compilation of a tribute programme is best done by an insider. This one is fine, a mixture of the well-known and the offbeat, of the slow and dreamy, with the rhythmic toe-tappers that immediately established and then controlled the mood of the audience.

Our hostess mentions that Lee was called the first Stanislavskian singer, because of her ability to inhabit a song. DeWrixon is herself a versatile actress, and deploys this talent to effect. When she sings the wistful numbers - The Folks Who Live on the Hill, These Foolish Things, Till there was You - the audience falls silent. They bounce in their seats to I Don't Know Enough About You, Why Don't You Do Right, I'm a Woman, and others. Her control is complete.

She is backed by Cian Boylan (piano), Dave Fleming (double base) and Tom Dunne (drums), a trio con brio, in this hugely enjoyable entertainment.

Runs until June 8th; to book phone 086-8784001

Gerry Colgan