Herald Sun - 7 Oct 2003

Choice and Chunky Cuts
THE HERALD SUN
7 October 2003
By Stephanie Glickman

“This is not a typical meal on the Chunky Move menu. The daily special has changed from high-octane aggro choreography to black comedy.

While the Chunky ethos and edgy aesthetic remain, there is also more theatrical direction in this work co-directed by Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin and Michael Kantor.

The show has strong defining moments - Michelle Heaven's obsessive finger acrobatics verbally directed by shoe fetishist Brian Carbee and Luke Smile's body origami as he is pulled and dismembered by disturbed individuals.

There are obvious bits of each collaborator in this absurdist dish: Obarzanek's choreographed violent stretching, cutting, dismembering of bodies to grossly evocative sound samples by Francois Tetaz; Guerin's intricate, taut choreography, often tongue-in-cheek. But movement here is a dramatic device to establish the tormented isolation and freakish interactions of the five oddball characters who collide with, crash and demolish each other.

The continually revolving set with shifting walls and doorways defines the show, creating not only a logistical challenge for the performers, but also a constantly changing backdrop for action.

With three directors, it could be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, but Tense Dave evolves as a unique hybrid.

There are still kinks, but the work goes into intense territory and is more psychologically meaty than Chunky Move's regular fare.”