I sidled down to The Kitchen to watch a performance called Scenario: 'Script to Perform', by Gillian Walsh. The Kitchen is a lovely space and the staff were friendly, however the performance was absolutely dreadful and the epitome of pretentiousness.
It essentially consisted of four dancers calling out numbers and letters like drones, and then moving into different positions via one of only three moves, in an agonisingly slow fashion. One of the performers had a deep scowl upon her face the entire time which made the thing even more difficult to watch. The lighting was interesting but very sporadic and the music seemed to be created to one sole purpose - to agonise the audience. It was a jumble of vibrating sounds and a whining pitch. For quite a while I thought I was suffering from bad tinnitus, until I realised a large number of the audience had their fingers in their ears.
I believe that a performance should aim to please the crowd and bring enjoyment. Of course performances can provide a commentary on some sort of art form, as I think the aim was here. But to seemingly purposefully test the audience to see how long they could watch this monstrosity is downright rude, not to mention the performers not once making eye contact with the audience. For the record, six people left during the performance.
All in all, I did not enjoy The Kitchen upon my first visit. But I liked the space enough that I'll give it another chance and I hope that it will redeem itself.
Log In
