Dinner review by participant

Description of Dinner by an Audience Member

Under low blue light, three women and three men sit at six identical round tables loosely spread out. Over the next six minutes (the performance seems as a whole to be structured around successive movements of roughly six minutes duration) the performers tap out syncopated jazz rhythms on the table tops, supplemented in the latter stages by rhythmic chanting. At intervals, they swiftly lift tables and chairs and move closer together, eventually forming a tight ring of tables.

In a blackout the performers exit and warm lighting illuminates the empty tables. In the course of the second 'movement' the performers enter one by one, all dressed in slightly strange versions of formal attire, and engage in a series of idiosyncratic gestural greeting

routines. They circulate around the ring of tables and miniature dramas seem to be played out in some of the individual encounters.

They eventually move towards the chairs and sit, but they soon leap up, move about and then return to their seats. After a couple such routines and further one on one encounters / embraces, they finally all sit down and engage in paired conversations in invented languages. The first pair seem to converse in Spanish sounding languages, while the talk of the second pair seems to be dominated by Slavic sounds, and the third pair use the tonal inflections associated with Chinese languages. The brief snatches of conversation explore a range of interactions, moods and dynamics, creating a relatively light-hearted table of Babel effect.

After about 18 minutes they move the tables into a v-formation, three tables angled against three. A confrontation emerges between the two men who occupy the central tables on either side; after a calming intervention from one of the others, the performers swap round and commence further conversations. One of the disputants begins singing - in the Chinese sounding language, but the others shush him leading to further quarrelling, mimicking of his song, and finally a collapse into laughter. The mediator from earlier brings this section to a close with a little speech to the gathering and they all move their tables up-stage to form a line across the rear - with each table individually spot-lit from above.

In the next section, against a steady background rhythm of short vocal sounds (rather in the style of some of the sequences in Kantor's Dead Class), individuals in the group take turns in addressing the group and the audience - the atmosphere is of a slightly disputatious panel discussion. After six minutes of this they suddenly fall silent and all begin gesturing quietly, mouthing silent speeches towards the audience, in which they seem to be explaining something to us. This gradually moves into a humming sequence in a slow 4/4 time, which is then followed by chanted vowel sounds : eh, eh, eh, eh, eh eh; ya, ya, ya, ya,ya, ya; yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, and so on. As the rhythm, builds they all rise and divest themselves of their outer garments, revealing a colourful array of pastiche 'folk' costumes underneath. Still chanting, they move into a lively choric dance evocative (for this viewer) of Russian or Greek peasant dance.

After a climactic conclusion to the dance, one of the women comes to the front and begins what seems to be an explanation of the dance and music; two men and a woman take up positions and, accompanied by clapping, clicking, stamping, humming and vocal chanting, move into what seems to be a ritual á confrontation sequence which leads to one of the men dancing with a bottle of Budweiser balanced on his head, while the woman echoes his movement behind him.