QDance Company – Re:INCARNATION at Festival Theatre Edinburgh Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Deborah

Last night we were introduced to QDance Company-Re:INCARNATION, based loosely around the Yoruba spirituality and the youth culture mainly in Lagos. The three main areas of the circle of life, birth ‘Ibi’, death ‘Iku’ and rebirth ‘Atunbi’, with the use of bright colours fading to blackness and the music at times extremely haunting.

The prologue opened with the two musicians coming on stage, with what looked like a line of brightly coloured washing hanging at the back of the stage. This is something I have seen so many times in Africa and is true to depiction. Using a back screen to advise of which of the three cycles we were in was helpful as so much seemed to run into each other which made if a bit confusing for me. But isn’t life, like that?

Birth: A confusion of colour, happiness and excitement, an appearance of parties and loving life, leads to demonstrative sexual behaviour and a woman giving birth. It is a time of joy and growth. Birth quickly turns to death…

Death: The fighting and unrest of Lagos is brought to the front of life and how in a moment a life can be taken. This changes the atmosphere, and a type of darkness comes over the dancers as they show the spiritual side of death with ‘ghost’ like entities with the use of white powder covering their bodies and puffing it out by slapping their shorts.

Re-birth: There was a bit of empty stage, where the two musicians gave us a duo. The beginning of this phase was a bit strange; a girl stood in the middle of the stage and recited a poem or phrases of learning, whilst the others were smearing each other and her with some black substance.

For me, the dancing was remarkable, the body control and working as a team was above par and they loved what they were doing. The costumes were definitely ‘African’ and enriched the show. The musicians were very talented and with the use of the singing drum often gave it an eerie feeling.

Sadly, I need to criticize this show for its lack of direction when it came to the segments, and we got totally lost in what was meant to be translated in the three segments. Even speaking to other goers, they too felt lost when they left.

The music was fantastic, but it was extremely overwhelming and loud, unsettling so at times. If it had been toned down a bit, it would have been far more enjoyable.

I was gutted when the lady started her words of wisdom as it was difficult to hear, her broad accent was hard to understand and as it was spoken so quickly, so much got lost and it was extremely interesting and seemed to be how it was all connected.

The lighting was very dark at times making it difficult to see their wonderful moves. But the use of lighting to cast shadows was ingenious. But at one point there was an orange light, which I took for the ‘fire’ that cleansed, shone dazzling and blinding into our eyes.

Overall, I rate this 3/5 stars as it was confusing to follow and extremely loud.

Rating: 3/5

www.capitaltheatres.com
Evenings 7:30pm
Age 12+ (sexual references and partial nudity)
Running Time: 90 minutes with no interval.