BWW Reviews: SALT Challenges Our Understanding, of a Person's Worth with the Commodification of Human Beings

Reviewed Friday 17th January 2014

This is not a company that is easily daunted. After a week of oppressively hot summer temperatures, well over 40C every day in Adelaide, the theatre was subject to a power cut just before the performance was due to begin, due to the excessive load on the electricity supply. After a long delay, it seemed that power was not going to be restored but, as the company were about to cancel the performance, it returned, and everybody involved swiftly swung into action. The show must go on.

Restless Dance Theatre is a company for both disabled and fully able dancers to work together, and has produced some remarkable works during its existence. The latest work, being presented at Norwood's Odeon Theatre, is Salt, an exploration of one's individual value, drawn from the saying of the father of director, Rob Tannion, who would often remark that he should always be worth his weight in salt.

Salt, Sodium Chloride, NaCl, is something that is readily available, cheap, used in a wide range of foods, and added to food at the table, but this was not always so. It was used for barter, and as currency in Africa and, in the 6th Century, Moorish merchants traded it weight for weight for gold, so highly was it prized. It was a luxury, and wars have even been fought over it. The word appears in many phrases and contexts. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, we find the term "salt of the Earth".

Recognising the earlier high status given to the mineral, to be worth one's salt means to have earned one's pay, the word salary coming from the Latin, salarium, which includes sal, the word for salt, salarium being the money given to Roman soldiers to buy their salt. That, then, brings us back to the core, and establishes the context of this work.

What that means, in this case, is an exploration of worth, both self-worth, and one's worth in the eyes of others. These can both vary enormously over time, affected by a wide range of circumstances and influences. Devised by Tannion in collaboration with Assistant Director, Michelle Ryan, and the cast: Felicity Doolette, Jianna Georgiou, Lorcan Hopper, and Dana Nance, this production covers a wide range of situations, drawing on the very personal experiences and recollections of those involved.

Like much of the work that we see from Restless Dance, this is a "no holds barred" production. There are many poignant moments, and some that will make you angry at the way some people treat others. This is offset by many more positive moments, expressions of hope, and a fair sprinkling of humour. A trademark of productions by this company, in evidence here, is the willingness of these brave performers to reveal a great deal about themselves, which brings enormous emotional power into the performance.

You will laugh, you will be moved, you might even shed a tear or two, such is the strength of this production, and the involvement and commitment of the four performers, who fully invest themselves in this wonderful work.

The set design, by Meg Wilson, with Gaelle Mellis as design advisor, has a number of vertical ropes with bags of salt attached to one side of the stage, and two walls forming the corner of a room, its walls covered with patches salt damp, and a huge pile of salt built up right in the corner, on the other side. It is imaginatively transformed time and time again by Geoff Cobham's amazing lighting design. DJ TR!P's music underscores the action superbly, helping to build and release tension and move the action forward.

This is a marvellous production that has a lot to say, and it says it with eloquence. With only a few performances in the coming week, moving quickly to get tickets is essential.

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