Supernova

Well that was delightful.

Lou has been working with a dance troupe off the tellybox while they do a number one tour. Being totally out of touch with popular culture they had passed me by… Diversity. It’s a family affair, largely. A tight knit group of clever bodies and hard working young men and women. They dance. There’s a story. But we are there for the bodies. There’s a plot and all, and that’ll help get repeat custom, but with what these guys can do they just need a light shining on them really.

Supernova. We are all made of stars!

This is a not the sort of thing I normally go and see, so perhaps I enjoyed it more for the unfamiliarity. I loved the self conscious style of it. I really enjoyed seeing them throw and catch things on stage and bounce balls off each other without ever losing or dropping things. I liked how they left the stage in one costume and came back in another one way too quickly. I knew the jeopardy and could sense the backstage frenzy. Loads of them. Visuals to blend with, lights to find, doors to get through, stages to not fall off, rain machines… They even had fire.

It would maybe benefit from an editor, but I like that this is an expression of sheer exuberance. “Fuck it, let’s have two torches for about a second and a half.” “Noooo!” screams the producer in me, knowing how much health and safety and cost is going to go into a flashy unnecessary moment. But the more of these moments we habitually lose, the duller the general theatrical offering we make in the world becomes. So yeah, good on you guys. Do a backflip with two torches for a second and a half and then put the stupid rain machine back on in the curtain call so there’s no time to dry that shit after the matinee before the evening show and everyone might pop their knee out losing a foot in a puddle. BECAUSE WE CAN. BECAUSE IT’S THERE.

Sometimes we don’t need to be sensible. We need to be a flashy great big supernova.

A teenage girl near me passed out watching the curtain call. She woke up in a wheelchair laughing. “The plot was really good!”

There’s gonna be dancers made out of this. What fun.