Created, Directed and Performed by Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney – Ockham’s Razor
Choreography by Nathan Johnston
Review by Marina Funcasta
“This piece is a culmination of everything we have learned in the twenty four years we have spent working together. Lets begin: Day One.”
Quite an opening. Charlotte Mooney takes off her glasses and steps away from the mic, joining her partner and fellow Artistic Director of Ockham’s Razor, Alex Harvey, at the bar. I inhale: if the scenes are organised by days, there’s no way this show is lasting an hour.
There is no need. Days pass in minutes. Before we know it, we are ten years in, deep in the ‘Dark Days’. But the body knows: the passage of time is communicated through repeated gestures. We witness Mooney and Harvey grow into each other. Awkward hand placements, misplaced footing, the fear of taking up too much, or too little, space; these become seamless choreography, as we see them support one another, their bodies becoming one another’s physical scaffolding. They noodle into each other. Like the audience, our performers blindly rediscover the other’s heartbeat, as if for the first time. We see their partnership blossom in front of our eyes.
Are we surprised? Inevitable triumph is practically revealed by the very existence of the show. Trust, support, these are all words pointed to in the programme. But what isn’t mentioned is the love. And yet, it’s everywhere. I don’t mean this in a sappy way; the show was, in fact, surprisingly unsentimental. The white background, harsh lighting, abstract set and unpredictable sound design made for a depersonalised account of the pair’s (working) relationship. It felt abstracted at points. Like it was tugging on something more universal. Something to do with energy.
The use of pendulums, balance, and even the mention of waves, combined to form an energetic mosaic. As if our performers embodied these forces, if only for a brief moment on stage. Physics and the physical collide in Collaborator in ways which exceed understanding. Sand falls onto the stage, and lights reflect off pendulums like golden coins. Sometimes they behave. Sometimes they don’t. But in these moments, perhaps when a pendulum may be caught, our performers saw opportunities for humour, for improvisation. No corner of the world fostered by this piece is discarded. And these places are precisely where the hope and love of the piece was cultivated.
Certainly, Collaborator must have been no easy feat. Both in the run-up and in the performance. Performing in synch with someone is one thing. Working with them over decades is another. Balance is hard to strike, especially when change is hard to track. But equilibrium is eventually reached, even if we see our performers often run in divergent directions, and get lost in the darkness of the middle section. Their hope is in one another, as they guide their bodies through space and the air. Even if I’m sure the reality must have been more chaotic, the piece lands on the conclusion that even in the more disordered times, symbiosis can still be found. A true partnership can always track its pace.
A Luminous Portrait of Partnership
Collaborator ran at The Place, London
Running time: Sixty minutes without interval
Photo Credit – Kie Cummings
Review by Marina Funcasta (contact@corrblimey.uk)
Marina is halfway through an English literature degree at Edinburgh University, wherein she has been (considerably) involved in the drama scene: enjoying performing with their Shakespeare Company shows, but also modern takes on Arthur Miller. However, Marina’s interests are wide-ranging under the theatre genre – enjoying abstract, more contemporary takes on shows (with a keen interest in Summerhall)
