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A compelling and intimate episodic dance piece, OUT challenges homophobia and celebrates the queer black community through vibrant Jamaican dancehall rhythms and immersive multi-genre dance movement.Summary
Rating
Excellent
An hour long performance separated into three quite different episodes, Ray Young’s OUT opens with dancers Azara Meghie and Bambi Phillips Jordan moving to ‘It Bend Like Banana’, a Jamaican dancehall tune by Vybz Kartel. Simultaneously explicit but sensual, the lyrics reflect the moves made by the dancers circling and mirroring each other at times before moving away. Different bodies wearing similar costumes, they are dressed in a mixture of black fishnet with touches of red. Performed in the round at the small Lillian Bayliss studio, where the audience is within touching distance, the closeness shared is raw, suggesting a dichotomy of voyeurism and intimacy. The performers are both bold and vulnerable, acrobatic but self-deprecating.
And then, the energy subsides, and they both sit, shedding garments and high heeled boots silently, before performing side by side, in unison, in an horrific and lengthy section, to a loud evangelical soundtrack forcefully and ceaselessly testifying to the evil of homosexuality. This section is quite extraordinary; its length and unremitting proclamation of wickedness and immorality is a hard listen – almost overwhelming and claustrophobic.
The final section is softer and infused with humour as the pair attempt to peel oranges whole in one motion: a nod to their Jamaican heritage, before squeezing and consuming the juice in an increasingly sexualised manner. The audience, having lived every emotion alongside the performers to this point, audibly relax. Laughter reverberates around the room and orange segments are passed from performers to spectators.
This is a production that has queer, trans and black intersectionality at its heart, played alongside the Jamaican dancehall tracks that have been the staple of those spaces that have given so many of this community freedom and safety to express themselves without judgment. The staging and lighting effectively focus the attention on the performers with the closeness of the audience resembling a club. Young, as creator and director, has imagined a space where bodies speak for themselves, without category or judgement, repositioning themselves with strength, beauty and a hefty dose of self-deprecation. In interview, they spoke of the need to perform without speech, in a safe sacred space, without judgement. The middle section, horrifying as it is, reflects the ceaseless daily judgement that black, queer people are subject to and that alone is hard to bear.
Of course this piece defies categorisation, as it should. And it is much more about celebrating the community it represents than educating the community it does not. Nonetheless it is an intensely moving and absorbing experience; each element carefully constructed to take the spectator on an immersive journey.
Created and Directed by: Ray Young
Additional Devising by: Azara Meghie and Bambi Phillips Jordan
Produced by: Steph Be with Jenna Mason
Lighting Design by: Nao Nagai
Set Design by: Naomi Kuyck-Cohen
Sound Design by: Naomi Jackson
Sound Engineering by: Vincent Robinson
Costume Design by: Mia Maxwell
OUT has completed its current run.
