Political Mother

Black Box, Galway

A man in ancient armour stands alone, unmoving at the beginning of Hofesh Shechter’s

Political Mother.

Then, without warning, he commits hara kiri, gasping and grunting. We see the sword coming out his back.

Is he a samurai? Or a crusader? He may be the former, but the possibility of the latter haunts the desperation of this disturbing yet exciting work.

Dancers judder and twist their arms, their hands, their hips to live rock infused with plaintive Israeli folk music. The guitarists and percussionists often materialise behind a scrim – as well as a collection of demagogues giving inarticulate but no less understandable speeches in the flagrant style of Hitler. They wear suits, military uniform and even an aggressive gorilla head, mouth of sharp teeth agape.

This is a piece about life and death. Its effect is direct and immediate because its concerns, as well as the images, movement and music, are direct and immediate. And yet, even with the hard-rock, hard-hitting images and sound, choreographer Shechter displays an almost elegant sense of composition. No surprise that occasional oases of baroque symphonic and choral music interrupt the chest-throbbing guitar and percussion. The feral dance is as expressive of harmony, counterpoint and modulation as the music. The show feels full of agony, explosive frustration and livid despair – perhaps a choreographic representation of the way political hatred infects and warps life in the Middle East like a vicious incubus. The music is so loud that audience members receive earplugs at the beginning of the show – but the volume is just as much an expression of the show’s visceral anger as the tortured dancing – often in folkdance formation. Side- and top-lighting through a veil of dust creates a sense of purgatory, or wartime in the arid desert.

The message emblazoned on the stage towards the end reads “Where there is pressure there is folkdance”. The miserable dance of those who carry the repercussions of political extremism. Shechter’s eloquent and smartly structured piece combines agony with a confident and defiant beauty that is truly innovative. Until July 24