BWW Reviews: AND ALL THING RETURN TO NATURE TOMORROW - But Some are Left Behind

Can a production where the performers spend half of their time naked on stage have no climax, no peak? The answer, it turns out is a definitive yes.

With And All Things Return To Nature Tomorrow, the world-premiere collaboration from Balletlab's Phillip Adams and guest choreographer Brooke Stamp, this could in fact be the intent; to remove any idea of the remarkable in the stripping back -literally - of the performers, and the art of performance itself. It could be that the pace of the show is an allusion to the utopian idea of peaceful co-existence, a conscious and deliberate avoidance of the frenetic movement that can be so easily associated with nakedness. It could be some other earnest commentary on the nature of ... well, nature itself. Perhaps And All Things Return To Nature Tomorrow was just too clever for me to decipher. But I'm leaning more toward it being too clever for its own good.

As a contemporary dance piece, it was conspicuously absent of dance, save a few hypnotic movements in Stamp's And All Things and a frenetic piece toward the end of Adam's Tomorrow (ah, there goes one of my theories above). And try as I did to connect the steps, there were just so few for me to follow. Here a few things I can say for sure: the first piece had the feeling of Greek Theatre, with the audience so close to the stage, and the movements reminding me, inexplicably, of Olympic sport. The second, desert-alien piece with its audience participation and electro earplug-worthy music reminded more of a Burning Man gathering - the kind that makes sense to those involved on the ground - and none at all to an observer.

Art of course does not need to make sense. It is not a requirement of the form. But if I am going to be confused by something I also want to at least be curious. While Stamp's piece had some semblance of structure to enable critique, Adam's ponderous Tomorrow merely confused me. The rocks and string handed out, the precision-placement of audience members on the stage, it all seemed like it was leading us somewhere. But by the time the lights went up all I felt was left behind.

Maybe I'm just used to a reveal. Ironic right, when you consider, that in a show where most of the performers were naked before us, the purpose remained entirely hidden from view.

Phillip Adams Balletlab presents And All Things Return To Nature Tomorrow Choreographers Phillip Adams and Brooke Stamp

Venue: The Lawler | Southbank Theatre 140 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank VIC

Dates: 15 - 23 March 2013

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