Bringing some welcome chaos to the streets

Chaosmos

Meeting House Square

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Macnas joined the Dublin Fringe Festival this weekend for what has become an annual treat for families in the festival's programme. In Chaosmos, it provided its usual stunning visual spectacle, with a collection of jungle and woodland creatures: a majestic owl, a stately fox, two elegant deer on stilts, an insect mounted on an enormous wheel. Their leader is a tigress with a wire hoop skirt, which she threatens the animals with like a cage. The real ringmaster, however, is director Noeline Kavanagh, who choreographs the action from a distance in top hat and tails. After a short dance around Meeting House Square, she leads her beasts through the streets of Temple Bar. But it is more parade than promenade performance. There is an incredible sculptural detail to the macabre masks and costumes but little else. It would be great to see them take a theme and integrate it with some narrative detail.

Sara Keating