Research the theatre company DV8

DV8 is a famous physical theatre company that was established in 1986 by Lloyd Newson, the company director to this day. In total, it has produced 18 physical theatre performances that borderline expressive dance, which they have toured internationally with and have produced four films for television that have won awards.

From watching videos and doing research of DV8’s pieces, it is clear they aim to get the audience to feel a particular emotion, as opposed to just sitting there and enjoying the scene in front of them. The performances seem to try and cover topics which are normally taboo and to do with the way people view society, and do so in a way that is unique to DV8, by fusing speech with physical movements, often sharing interactions between the performers on the stage. This is particularly prominent in ‘Can We Talk About This’, a recent piece from 2011 – 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NlOPzP4UM8) The piece focused on freedom of speech and the religion of Islam, and was a method of speaking out at a time when attitudes towards Islam were changing from the increase in terrorism and extremists. Having seen video clips of their performance, I think that it was a very brave choice to choose to document this particular issue, but one which was on the whole beneficial, as it would have challenged the audience’s viewpoint about a great issue in society. I believe that choosing to document this in a semi-realistic way; using real verbatim speech from interviews, and fusing it with physical theatre choreography would have divided people, but in my opinion it really worked and was a clever artistic choice.

Their rehearsal period is long and strenuous, hence why they normally only produce a performance every couple of years. It shows, as DV8 always produce refined and finely tuned performances. I think it may be difficult for the actors and actresses to cope with such a long rehearsal period, as  the work may lose the freshness that it had in the beginning, but on the other side to that, I think a performance that covers such topical issues cannot be approached without a great deal of understanding and insight into the performance happening first.

DV8 say themselves on their website that their work is “about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously.” I think this is an interesting way to describe their work, as I agree that the work takes risks and redefines the line between dance and theatre, yet I somewhat disagree with their pitch of “communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously”. I think that the medium of dance is not always clear in terms of portraying ideas clearly, and the sheer topics of the work they create automatically puts them at a point for discussion; some people will enjoy the performance, some people will not. The sensitive nature of the topics they decide to act about requires a degree of understanding and perceptiveness to the views of the audience and at the end of the performances there will be lots of different opinions about what the audience has just watched, which I think is a positive thing, yet some people may view as a negative. I would suggest that it is a negative, but DV8 approach all the topic matters with such commitment, it is obvious that they want to get the performance exactly right, not half committing to anything. It is clear that DV8 performances challenge both the audience and the performer, which I think is refreshing, as there always needs to be a company pushing the boundaries of theatre in order for it to progress, which DV8 does in several different ways.

For a final thought, every member of a DV8 audience will not come out having enjoyed or felt comfortable throughout the performance, but I do not think that they have had to in order for it to be a successful piece of theatre.

Source for factual information: http://dv8.co.uk