Premiere 19 October 2006
Malthouse Theatre
Melbourne International Arts Festival
The collapse of the West Gate Bridge in 1970 is an event that remains imbedded in the public psyche of Melbourne. Thirty-five men lost their lives when a span came down during its construction. Structure and Sadness examines the bridge as a supporting and connecting structure. Its concrete and definable form contrasts with the unknowable grief and chaos brought about by its failure. On stage, the performers construct a precarious world teetering on the point of collapse. The work shifts between practical building of supportive structures and the impressionistic portrayal of disintegration and sorrow.
Structure and Sadness is a complex dance work, which examines the impressionable human body contending with the unyielding inanimate world that surrounds it. It explores an event in recent history not as a factual narrative, but as a physical, emotional and visual response to a devastating accident.
Director: Lucy Guerin
Choreographer: Lucy Guerin with the dancers
Dancers from Premiere Production:
Fiona Cameron, Antony Hamilton,
Lina Limosani, Alisdair Macindoe,
Kirstie McCracken and Byron Perry
Composer: Gerald Mair
Motion Graphics: Michaela French
Set and Lighting
Designers: Bluebottle: Ben Cobham and Andrew Livingston
Costume Designer: Paula Levis
Dramaturge: Maryanne Lynch
Production Manager: Carly Heard
Producer: Michaela Coventry
Responses
"Guerin has a unique capacity to illuminate deep human emotions through abstract choreography"Hilary Crampton, The Age, Melbourne, October 21 2006
