Kirsty Emmerson
An Opus… is a festivity of movement, confusion and excitement. It is the physical manifestation of puberty, of growing up and understanding who they are, working out what fits, who each performer wants to be, and how they want to become themselves during their formative years.
On opening, we watch their first-time-for-everythings, displayed in still images, with single word stimuli to set them into their poses. Much of it centres around shock and horror, speeding into excitement and further on, it becomes chatter and the frantic movements of friendship, relationships, sex and a thousand other experiences which fight to grab the attention of the audience as the performances spiral into madness.
The idea that most of the performance is enacted in silence is where the movements lose their thread – it takes a fair time to decide what each sequence represents, and in that time the audience wonders whose experience we are watching – even though it’s a collaborative piece, it is human nature to empathise with a central character. Given the chance, as we are at the close of the piece, we can understand the motives behind the character, the decisions they make and their desires. Until the closing three minutes, however, we are lost in a sea of movement, left to swim as the characters are, in their ever-moving insecurities and changing sensitivities.
The performance, however, explodes in the final moments, coming to life in a most energetic and entertaining manner. Bringing the act to life is Beyoncé, embodied by one of the performers as she makes her transition into maturity and takes over the stage. This returns some sense to the piece, the explosive immaturity combining with the strength of emotion which comes from being a teenager – as all of these characters are – and brings it to a closing crescendo that suits the piece.
Being a teenager and going through puberty are difficult, as everyone who has experienced it knows, and this show exposes the myriad of emotions through which one passes. It explores the emotions which control us in a manner which is familiar to those who have experienced them, and this chaos of noise is a wonderful opening to an evening programme, giving energy to its audience to carry through the night.
The BE Festival ran in Birmingham from the 2-6 July 2013. It will return next year. For further information, please visit the BE Festival website.