• theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

Die Hard Rock Cafe Müller

26/2/2018

Comments

 

by Shannon Friday

Bruce Willis, bruised and scratched, stares out at the camera in front of a bright blue and purple background
Die Hard Rock Cafe Müller starts firmly in the realm of Die Hard, all machine guns and suits. The dancers (Jadyn Burt, Leah Carrell, Tui Hofmann, Tallulah Holly-Massey, and Alana Yee) blast each other with pistols and machine guns, Bruce Willis' weirdly distorted voice melting into Purcell as dancers twist and throw each other, bouncing up with unending energy.

Kristian Larsen and Joshua Rutter’s choreographed violence is silly and fun, safe within the conventions of the action movie. Fave moments get their shout-out: there's an extended armed stand-off with finger-guns pointed at a shifting enemy, “Now I have a machine gun ho ho ho” reveal, and Hans Gruber falling from the top of Nakatomi Tower. It's bizarrely earnest, and the contrast between the super-serious dancers and, well, Die Hard, is funny.

It's funny, and then... it isn't. Under Brynne Tasker-Poland’s harsh fluorescent sidelights, the dancers re-enact snippets until the actions lose their original meaning. They fall to the ground over and over again, hauling themselves up, only to crash back to the ground. A sleepwalking woman in a nightie lets a gun fall from her limp, unyielding hand. A chorus-line of dying bodies slump their way across the stage. Now we're firmly in the land of Pina Bausch’s Cafe Müller, stillness contrasting with up-tempo frenzy.

This isn't Die Hard's reassuring action hero who can solve problems through sanitised violence that ends in 90 minutes; this is Bausch's obsession with intimacy and violence. This is an overwhelming traumatised urge to revisit violent impulses acted upon the body. In action movies, it might be the bodies of men, as if that somehow excuses the violent repetition. Seeing the women struggle again and again, seeing hands grappling and flailing as cause and effect crumble, is oddly disturbing and queerly moving.
---
Die Hard Rock Cafe Müller is part of Footnote's annual ChoreoLab season. You can eat it all up at BATS Propeller stage 8.30PM, 26 February to 3 March.  Tickets are on the BATS webpage.

Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Comedy Festival 2023
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    Neurodiverse
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Stand Up
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory