Strange Days, created by Dominique Bagouet in 1990 and performed by Dance Theatre of Ireland in the Tivoli for this week only, is very different from his Deserts D'Amour, seen in 1995.
For this short piece, which evoked screams of approval from last night's audience, uses the music of The Doors and the costumes and dance of the 60s and 70s to satirise the intensity and self-consciousness of the young, torn between the wish to express their individualism and the need to retain the approval of their peer group by conforming.
Muirne Bloomer, Robert Connor, James Hosty, Samuel Letellier, Liz Roche and Loretta Yurick humorously and energetically expressed in mime and dance the gauche attempts of couples to get together while still appearing cool, though I suspect the piece will have greatest appeal for those who were themselves teenagers at that time.
The evening opened with Yurick and Connor's Like Water Flowing East as a metaphor for human relationships.
In black costumes tailored by Helen McCusker to suit: each personality, at times isolated singly or in couples by Paul Keogan's effective lighting, they illustrated the flow of life and love from the first ripples to emotional storms and the calm which follows.
From the opening with Ella Clarke alone on stage, her assured poise in the angular movement held out a promise amply fulfilled by the rest of the cast (with J.J. Formento replacing Hosty) and including Liz Roche, who took over from Clarke half-way through, due to her recent illness.
