Lynda Cochrane (composer and musician), Daniel Murfin (sound), Linda Duncan Mclaughlin (text and development consultation)
Company Chordelia was formed in 2002 and this latest performance, Miranda, comes after a co-production of The Seven Deadly Sins with Scottish Opera, and is part of the Traverse’s Autumn Festival that runs from 18-27 November. There is music from Lynda Cochrane, Chopin, Corelli, Clara Schumann, and Sibelius. The festival, now in its third year is being called “a celebration of the best new work from the worlds of Dance, Contemporary Music, Visual Theatre and Puppetry.”
The white set with its pale carpet and covered bed and chair had an air of softness, with stars viewed through white drapes. Giant shiny tear shaped droplets hang from above.
Like a painting come to life, a Pierrot appears with a valise and moves plaintively to gentle music like a marionette whose strings have just been loosed. Miranda then appears in evening dress clutching a bottle of fizz.
She appears angry, disturbed and frustrated as she flails on the floor. In fact, there is a lot of flailing legs in this show. A figure in a nightdress flits across the stage doing scissor steps and it seems like this is Miranda as a child.
The rest of the performance shows the stages of reconciliation between the adult and child Miranda and they end in bed together. Pierrot, her doll, having played its part in the dreamy scenario, leaves with the valise.
There was a feature of loud heavy breathing between scenes that must have been meant to be atmospheric, but sounded to me like a female Darth Vadar. It seemed at odds with the piece’s soft and starry ambience. When a dark hooded figure appeared, I expected to hear the words ‘I am your mother’. Maybe it was, as there was a lot of nurturing and warming of the ‘lost’ and ‘cold’ Miranda by this hooded creature and the message seemed to be the importance of looking after your inner child but overall it lacked conviction and passion.
The performance uses the traditional genre of storytelling through dance but though beautifully performed lacked real magic and suspense. Somehow the props seemed excessive with the real tea and cake detracting rather than adding to the scene.
Miranda is described as a “psychological thriller and a story of self -discovery.” While the latter proved to be the case, the former certainly did not for this reviewer.
Performance
Sunday 20 November, 7.30pm, £15, £11, £6