I don’t know Crystal Pite personally, but I’d be willing to bet she wouldn’t be offended if I said that there were moments in Assembly Hall that put me in mind of that other piece of surreal genius, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Mad medieval fantasies both, modern and medieval moralities mingled, an un-wished-for quest whose purpose is more than a bit confused, knights in armour whose bodies seemed to come apart rather too easily… And both hugely entertaining.
Created on Pite’s Canada-based company Kidd Pivot, and here receiving its Scottish premiere, this was another collaboration with writer Jonathon Young but we were clearly a world away from Betroffenheit or Revisor. Young’s voice-over, lip-synched by the dancers, backgrounded what narrative there was, brilliantly matched by Pite’s irresistibly quirky choreography. But, to the plot…
We were in the kind of seedy church hall used for meetings of everything from AA to the toddler’s group, and with a stage probably more used to school drama productions. Here and now, though, it housed the emergency meeting of a medieval re-enactment society fallen on hard times. Internal squabbles, falling attendance and rising debts threatened the society: only a true quest could redeem things, but who would be the saviour?
The committee members were a mixed bunch, characters established by the voice-over but action standing in equally for argument. After nit-picking discussion of protocol and the point at which coffee should be served (oh, committee life!) we found that Dave was only there to ensure a quorum. However, when he sat in ‘the empty chair’, reality and myth started to mingle. Dave and others climbed onto the stage and into the medieval world. From here on we had all the tropes of medieval history – maidens in distress, valiant knights, swordplay and much hacking of bodies. The action was, admittedly, hard to follow exactly and some might have found actual dance passages a bit thin on the ground but it didn’t really matter. We moved in and out of the myth, members climbing on and off the stage as, in one world, the meeting was still going on while, in the other, the knight was pursuing his quest.
There were wonderful visual moments, as when a table was upset in anger and each flying element – candelabra, flowers, tableware etc – was frozen in time, each held in the air by one of the company. Similarly, towards the end, a whole knight was created by dancers bringing together bits of armour – helmet, breastplate, sword and so on. Pite’s choreography constantly defied expectation: amid the mayhem of sword-swinging battle, suddenly a lovely duet emerged in which, shorn of armour, dancers let fly emotion in wide, sweeping arcs and effortless lifts.
This was a delightfully surreal evening, and a real treat as we neared the end of a Festival rather short on international dance. Spot-on dance-theatre not taking itself too seriously, daring to be genuinely funny.
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