Dance review: Change at the Firkin Crane
Change covers much ground but in the end it’s a shaky work in progress. It plays for one more show tonight at 7:30pm
Multiculturalism and its main tenets of diversity, equality and inclusion are all well and good in theory, but in reality cannot be foisted on people who don’t feel a genuine connection with the perceived other.
This is particularly evident in the poorer areas of society, where people are forced to live side by side with groups of individuals from all over the world in a desperate collective act of survival, caused by never ending imperialism.
The well to do meanwhile, safely tucked away in gated communities and far from the madding crowd, champion this situation as it suits their double-pronged interests of both preserving and growing their own wealth.
This continued exploitation however, needs an ever expanding number of flag bearers to help propagate the pseudo reality created by the establishment and Change, a new dance show by Croí Glan, is one such unconscious example of this dispiriting movement.
The show begins with three interlocked performers dressed in colorful clothing and high vis jackets, slowly making it up off of the bench they are seated on, before being joined by another performer, who helps the group across the stage to the fifth and final member lying on the ground.
The merry uber caring group of five, then begin to play with long poles used for pitching a tent and seem to be working together to build various different shapes or a kind of larger structure to move in and out of. Whether deliberately or not, it was hard to tell, the tent poles then collapsed and from there on out, some of the performers seemed a little unnerved by this incident and it appeared to affect their concentration.
While individually each performer was very capable, collectively their movements were way out of time and numerous mistakes crept into the performance. Ordinarily, this isn’t the end of the world, but in this case it added to a sense of irritation created by the heavy handed narration about climate action, as well as one performer saying “I don’t know why I’m still talking, I’d much rather dance”.
The audience didn’t need to be told this was a piece about climate change as it was abundantly clear by the excellent set and costume design by Deirdre Dwyer, which included a chandelier made from recycled bottles hanging from the stage. Nor did it require the plethora of on the nose snippets of text interspersed throughout or the mishmash of quotes about the climate to convey the meaning of the piece.
Mark Fisher, deceased punk hero of the left, even got an uncredited mention with his famous assertion that it would be easier to imagine the end of the world, rather than the end of capitalism. This startling sound bite however, was thrown into the show with no real purpose and only served to reveal the shallow engagement with the ongoing changes to the natural world being presented.
Although it claims to be “a hope-filled reimagining of the world with diverse bodies from diverse lands” Change instead presents on stage a perfect illustration of the forced affinity often seen in advertisements for large corporations, between performers from different backgrounds making exaggerated gestures and dance moves all under the pretence of getting along.
It was obvious there was no real chemistry between the performers and they were all banded together in a box ticking exercise which at best could be deemed an act of ignorance and at worst something much more cynical.
This show, with its ridiculous political correctness, reminded me of an atrocious reworking of George Orwell’s Animal Farm staged at the Everyman in 2022, which was the exact antithesis of what Orwell wished to convey in his novella. While Change at least is not an abasement of a great work of art, it is borne of the same mindset and inadvertently serves the very folk, it purports to decry.
Change is showing for one more night in the Firkin Crane. For more info on tickets see here