On Behalf of Nature

On Behalf of Nature makes a valiant attempt to sing with all the voices of the mountains. However when approaching the peaks it stumbles, loses its footing and breaks every musical bone in its body. Meredith Monk invites you on an auditory exploration of global ecology through an immersive spiritual cypher.

The show begins. The music rises lithely in time with the lights. It swell intoxicatingly, intermingling and finally overflowing into the audience like a damn-breaking stream. It spills into the stalls, cascade down the isles. It flows gloriously up the stairs, taking the circle seat-by-seat. And there the sound rests, hovering there with us, perched on armrests and curled around pillars.

It’s free now, taken flight from the throats that spawned it. It resonates resplendently in the space, pressing lovingly up against our electrified skin. It’s only in this autonomous existence that the music turns, with newly formed eyes and observes with us the action onstage. It’s safe to say that neither the audience nor our musically manifested companion is impressed with what we see.

To say that the actor’s movement is somewhat dislocated from the soundtrack would be a profound understatement. The music is gorily dismembered from the choreography. The cast’s motion is stiff, unresponsive and lifeless. If it were a hospital patient any doctor would readily pronounce it Dead On Arrival. In one sequence a couple sits singing under a starry sky. They then proceed to stand, walk a few feet to the left, sit back down, and continue singing. This occurs three incomprehensible times.

Maybe they were attempting to locate Orion in the heavens? Maybe they were sitting on some thistles or near a particularly aggressive looking sheep? We may never know. But regardless of motivation, this is exactly the sort of indecisive behaviour that would mar a potential romantic memory, and seriously infuriate any casual observers.

The climax comes in the form of the most bizarre visual display yet enacted on this unfortunate stage. The director of the piece steps onto the boards alone. Bounding and convulsing around the space, her movements resemble a minor psychotic episode via mild asthma attack. Graphic, onstage masturbation would feel less self indulgent than this surreal physical exhibition.

The soul of this performance clearly lies in its sound and song. In this element alone it achieves an effervescent wonder, rarely encountered in most theatres. Regrettably it is this formidable quality that serves to highlight the piece’s dramatic failure to transcend the trapping of its corporeal choreography.

On Behalf of Nature’s pretentious performance may force the environment to seek a more coherent spokesperson.

On Behalf of Nature is playing at Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. For more information please see the Edinburgh International Festival website.