Review by Kate Gaul
Ezgi Gün Ünal from Turkey has developed a twenty-minute piece for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. Billed as a “modern pantomime solo show depicting all the parts of human life”, Ordinary is a solo performance, on an almost bare stage. This is a brief exploration and examination of life all in just 25 minutes. We pass through phases to maturity and some of the demands and challenges of existence. The arc is from birth to death. The work has a beguiling naivety to it and there are few barriers to empathising and connecting with the dancer. It has an immediacy I wasn’t expecting from watching online. But a savvy combination of sound scape and editing hook the viewer. Staccato rhythms give way to orchestral and piano composition. Silence is used judiciously. Wide shots and closeups combined with theatrical blackouts help give form to the narrative which is both contemporary dance choreography and mime.
The compression of a life cycle into 25 minutes can be both emotional and thoughtful. With urgency we experience the sense of life moving inexorably forward. When the movement is literal or illustrative it is less interesting as we are looking for deeper resonances and sophistication.
Delivered via Vimeo the production is good, sound and vision are of a high quality and the camera and editing work precise. Great to see Turkish artists represented at Edinburgh Fringe – even ondemand!
Image Supplied