Jean Abreu and Naishi Wang in “Deciphers”
Deciphers, presented by DanceWorks and Harbourfront Centre, features a unifying motif of chaotic and cumbersome phenomena. The movement, sound and texture of this collaborative work by Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu all feel uncomfortably, humanly messy. At the top, holding the ends of a wide and narrow piece of paper that contains an array of notes and disparate scraps, they slowly advance towards each other. As the space between them diminishes, each awkward step further collapses the artifact and its relentless crumpling sets the vibe.
They grasp at each other, entangled limbs akimbo, in a slow motion spectacle of instinctive clambering. Their shirts get pulled up as they claw and push at each other; there is something both erotic and arduous in their urgent fumbling. It feels as if they are trying to make sense of a shared space that connects and alienates them in equal measure.
They crawl, bounce, roll and shimmy as they assert themselves. An abstracted conversation evolves between them, including a spoken word encounter in which each of them vocalizes in their native tongue; the collision of Mandarin and Brazilian-Portuguese makes for a resonant cacophony. Perhaps the overall effect changes depending on how well you understand either language, but for a spectator who understands neither—this works interchangeably as argument or commiseration. Acknowledging the crumpled mass between them, it becomes the symbolic subject of their disjointed discussion.
Olesia Onykiienko’s soundscape has distinctly hypnotic elements—rhythmic drones rising in intensity, an eerie cracking noise that echoes the creased and crumpled textures of paper and fabric. Ivy Wang’s austere visual design features a vast sea of white stretching out and upwards. In one especially vivid sequence, lighting designer Lucie Bazzo blasts the performers with primary colours, casting their offset, colour-mixed shadows onto the blank background canvas in a psychedelic spectacle.
As his tumbling and lurching tossed it about, I was inordinately fixated on Wang’s mop of tousled hair which seemed… thematically deliberate. As he waves his hands frantically in greeting or gives us a forceful thumbs up, an awful pantomime emptiness creeps into these gestures and his crestfallen face genuinely moved me. Abreu’s plaintive and guttural noises are similarly affecting.
Through unwieldy and deceptively inelegant movement, Wang and Abreu convey palpable intentionality—a sense of purposeful engagement and intimate awareness. Each fragmented interaction holds the potential for alienation or insight, hovering precariously in-between these possibilities.
Deciphers
running February 8 to 10, 2024
Harbourfront Centre Theatre (231 Queens Quay West)
Additional tour dates
running time: 60 minutes
Jean Abreu and Naishi Wang in “Deciphers”