Ellen Carr
Park Bench Dance Theatre’s How to Host a Dinner Party is a contemporary dance work playing with the conventions of the traditional dinner party. At least this is what I think it was trying to do. At just under 30 minutes in length the whole thing was over before the audience had really begun to get into it and, as such, I think this piece can only really be taken as a work in progress. This is good as there are many points to be improved upon before the work can be seen as the funny and skilled social commentary it has the potential to be.
Our fleeting time watching this production began with a bare stage, soon to be filled with the dinner table and multiple chairs essential for any dinner party. The two performers, Cornelia Turner-Klier and Rosanna Tat, play a game of arranging this furniture; a recognisible game for anyone who’s seen much contemporary dance or physical theatre in recent years. Chairs are ripe for playing with, and it can be done well, unfortunately in How to Host a Dinner Party it comes across more like we’re watching two people shuffle some chairs around than anything else.
Seemingly simple, minimalist work like this demands high levels of precision – every movement must be thought about in extreme detail to make this something enjoyable and worth watching. The ideas are here in this production, but the work isn’t quite honed enough. The dancers are certainly capable but it felt every movement could be enhanced and more fined tuned. Something else that was sorely lacking was engagement between performers and audience. From the programme notes I see the company is interested in characterisation and I desperately wanted to connect with these characters, to feel their pain as they waited for the guests that it transpires have never shown up. I wanted to laugh at their imagined scenarios and associate with what they were doing. Sadly too much of the performance was to the other performer, an easy trap to fall into when there are only two of you playing on stage.
We watch them prepare the table, and see a routine of waiting– I was uncertain whether this was meant to be in sync or not. Music inexplicably comes in and out, rather oddly disjointing the performance and the audience’s focus. Then a soundtrack of the hubbub of chatter comes in and the fantasy dinner party commences. The two performers make their way from chair to chair, interacting with various imaginary partners with choreography that is nothing too spectacular. A version of the classic one hand in the suit sleeve romance act is played out building to a racy crescendo until all is revealed to be nothing but a fantasy dinner party: there are no guests.
I was intrigued as to where this double act was going to go next and this is a show that definitely has scope for development. As it is, however, it isn’t one to add to the ‘to-see’ list.
How to Hote a Dinner Party has now finished its premiere at Brighton Fringe. For more information on future performances, see The Park Bench Dance Theatre website.