Review: Craig Bary's IN DIFFERENCE Highlights the Universality Of Love And The Importance For Marriage Equality Through Dance

Thursday 2nd March 2017, 8pm, Lennox Theatre, Riverside Parramatta

In a country still waiting for its leaders to support Marriage Equality, IN DIFFERENCE is Craig Bary's way of expressing the fact that regardless of the gender of the pair, love is a universal feeling. Coinciding with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, this beautiful emotive work has a depth and simplicity in its message that hopefully the law makers will one day soon understand.

Bary is joined by co-creators and performers Kristina Chan, Timothy Ohl, and Joshua Thomson for this 50 minute expression of love, emotion, joy and pain that sees a heterosexual partnership mirrored with a gay male partnership. Employing silence and stillness, contrasted with imposing synthesised electronic music compositions from Eden Mulholland and balanced with sensitive gentle passages, the quartet shares two love stories. After a captivating silence which serves to also settle the audience, hysterical sobbing is countered with a moment of ecstasy from the two seated men, apparently in the same room of a home as indicated by the framework of a door and window that forms a backdrop. The inclusion of the two other characters sees the wall become part of the performance, also serving as a block to lines of sight, giving the audience a different perspective on the events unfolding as they can only catch glimpses of the other pairing, depending on where they have chosen to sit in the General Admission space.

Karen Norris' lighting serves to draw focus and also keep some details in The Shadows, the caressing of the couples in doorways and windows seen in shrouded light through haze give a glimpse into private moments. The raising of house lights as the soundtrack of recorded opinions from parliament and radio shifts the focus to the audience, asking them to consider their views and actions regarding the issue.

There is a commonality between the two pas de duex and a sensuality between the couples. Movement continues whilst the underlying music has a rhythmic, meditative repetition. A darker tone pervades with a jarring stuttering of the sound tied to a shattering of the serenity leading into a mechanical percussive change during a fight, capturing the prejudice and victimisation that the LGBTI community are still subjected to despite societies protestations that we have progressed. They convey the stress and anxiety of the treatment in moments of stillness where the only movement is the laboured breathing which provides a contrast to the control and power of the movement where the partnerships express their connection and dependence.

IN DIFFERENCE is an intriguing and engaging expression that allows the audience to reflect on their position within the discussion. An important subject that needs to be addressed and not swept under the carpet or delayed, presented in a peaceful intelligent manner that is well worth experiencing.

IN DIFFERENCE

Lennox Theatre, Riverside Parramatta

2 -4 March 2017

Photos: Prudence Upton