Factory Theatre’s Performance Spring Festival – Adelheid/Heidi Strauss – this time

Reviewed by Paula Citron

Choreographer Heidi Strauss holds the dance banner at Factory Theatre’s Performance Spring Festival and her piece this time is the raw edge.

Strauss was inspired by a wordless play by Ken Gass called LIGHT (a little tragedy) which portrays a couple in a confined space and nine beams of light. For this time, the Factory Studio has been converted into a well with the seats towering above on two sides. Curved screens show the moody cityscapes by Jeremy Mimnagh. Mimnagh and John Mark Sherlock created the restless soundscape, and Rebecca Picherack the disturbing lighting.

The sensational Brendan Wyatt and Justine A. Chambers are the couple caught in this unstable environment. Strauss’ choreography is brutal – a physical hell where the two play emotional games with each other to the point of desperation.

Strauss’s works are usually controlled beauty, but the breath-taking this time is marked by a new, intense, bone-jarring physicality.

this time continues at the Factory Theatre Studio until Apr. 11.

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this time
Adelheid/Heidi Strauss
Factory Theatre’s Performance Spring
Choreographed by Heidi Strauss
Starring Brendan Wyatt and Justine A. Chambers
Factory Theatre Studio, Apr. 1 to 11, 2010
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