We enter this world naked and exposed. From every subsequent experience, we must glean meaning and then peg this understanding to our psyche, with each divergent thread ultimately constructing a patchwork, a sanctuary, a refuge from life’s tumult.
This is the premise that weaves through House of Sand’s beautifully erratic 'Castles', which is an innovative fusion of dance, theatre, poetry and song that has garnered acclaim in New Zealand and the eastern states. It is a collaboration between siblings: Eliza Sanders, the writer and performer, and Charles, the Director.
A writhing Eliza, naked from the torso upwards, greets the audience as they enter the theatre. A few minutes of awkward silence is ultimately broken by song; a vocal tone as pure as a soloist in a church choir. It is a show of such rapid shifts and transformations. Like life, you can never quite anticipate what will happen next. Eliza uses the lyrics of modern poets such as Nick Cave, Laura Marling and Regina Spektor as the base camp for absurdist word association on the themes of queer and gender identity and their interaction with organised religion, amongst other things. The estuary where each stream of consciousness meets the sea arrives when some solace is found in an interpretation of a phrase or idea.
Eliza’s words, and her dance, often contain elements of improvisation; a perpetual probing for new possibilities in a frantic search for safe harbour. In the climatic sequence, after almost an hour of frenetic energy, she is joined by a patchwork partner named Pablo, a versatile wearable puppet, which ultimately provides the comfort that she has been seeking in unexpected ways. You are left pondering the question of whether it is only through the love of others that we can find the home we are seeking, or whether it can be reached simply through the love of self?
This is not a piece that offers easy answers or even a singularly clear narrative or resolution. Like the performer on stage, the audience must piece together their own truth, which is a process that can be ultimately more powerful than any other.
★★★★★
