Seen by Federica at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 7^th of August 2024

5 stars – absolutely mesmerising

Three bodies that aren’t but skin: their masks present folds of stretched surface where the nose, mouth and ears should be. Even their large eyes are covered with a thick layer. Deprived of their senses, the three figures see, smell, hear and taste through skin, the collective skin of the beings they create from movement to movement.

In a succession that appears like an evolution, like the unwinding of multiple lives, new creatures take shape under our eyes. Each of them follows a whole new set of biomechanics, acquires a different centre of gravity, breathes differently, moves around circular patterns that explore all levels and directions, all possibilities of collective beings and tangled limbs.

This show by the Taiwanese D_Antidote Production dismantles human shapes to create a greater one, made of individuals bound to each other like in a ‘rat king’ (a phenomenon where several rats are caught into one being by their intertwined tails). Despite their identities being cancelled by their masks and collective movements, some moments remain where individuality finds its way to emerge in the performance. Nonetheless, only together can the bodies move: choreographer Po-Hsiang Chuang suggests a reflection on individualistic societies and on the importance of community, which is possibly the only chance towards evolution and metamorphosis.

2nd-25th August; 6.40 pm

Running time: 40 minutes

Venue: Assembly @ Dance Base 3

Tickets and Info: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/taiwan-season-palingenesis

Company Website: https://dantidote.com.tw/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dantidote_tw/

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