Sad Book
Old Market Hove
Review by Brian Butler
In the first year of my drama course, I was taught contemporary dance by a wonderful woman called Jane Winearls, who had been taught by the iconic contemporary dance creator Rudolph Laban – her highly visceral way of teaching was to bang a tabor and lead us round and round the studio at ever increasing speeds.
She believed all emotionally genuine movement started in the pit of the stomach, came up the abdomen and went out to the extremities, where it freed the body. I say this because all that creative originality I saw more than 50 years ago is on display in Brighton-based director and choreographer Andrea Walker’s new show. Sad Book is based on ex-children’s laureate Michael Rosen’s moving tribute to his dead teenage son Eddie. You have to approach Andrea’s show with his 201 dance company with an open mind and an open heart. What Rosen and now Walker display is the belief that sadness is okay and that grief comes from within. And never fully goes away.
We begin with a birthday party – is it Rosen’s or is it Eddie’s? Alan Coveney, who is a real lookalike for Rosen, often sits downstage left with a photo which we do not see but presume to be Eddie. As he writes down his thoughts about sadness, the text appears projected on a huge screen at the back of the stage, along with wonderful graphics – Eddy playing on the sofa or lying on a tree branch and dropping conkers to his father.
Andrea and his company create memorable images that reflect the overall sadness theme. There are some absolutely emotionally gripping moments that you take home with you. The phone rings centrestage and a woman answers it – presumably Eddie’s mother. The news of Eddie’s death creates long, elongated movements as she slowly and beautifully descends to lie face down on the stage. It is balletic, controlled, statuesque, and perfectly fits the mood.
One of my other favourite sequences in this tightly drawn 50 minute show is a sequence where Rosen walks in the rain with a cityscape projected behind him moving in the opposite direction. People rush here and there under umbrellas which have lights inside them. It is a beautiful picture of one man’s sorrow and the world’s ignorance of it. As is a sequence where Rosen recalls his mother in the rain. It’s a sequence both clever and moving and danced exquisitely. Coveney as Rosen is never offstage and there’s a haunting sequence where, stripped to his boxer shorts, he takes a shower. Is he cleansing his mind as well as his body? Andrea’s ensemble of dancers seem to create a protective bubble round Rosen and they are all worth naming- Michaela Cisarikova, Tamae Yonedan, Sam Reeves, Austin Bathgate, Yasmin Cogan and C J Driver.
Mention also has to be made of the dramatic soundscape – created by Richard Evans, Angela Pollock, Barney Morse Brown and Simon “Palmskin” Richmond, and the graphics by Jack Fox and Louise Rhodes-Brown.
Michael Rosen has approved the production and occasionally in its short tour appears on stage to read his own words. Sadly we didn’t get him in Brighton, but my suggestion is that he could record the narrative and we would hear his voice as his words came up on the screen. Just a thought.
If you missed Sad Book at the Old Market Hove, you can catch it at the Hackney Empire on 2 April. I really hope it comes back to Brighton. I absolutely want to see it again. It is a visceral, emotional, honest and painful five star piece of dance theatre.
Read my interview with Brighton-based director and choreographer Andrea Walker’s here.
Full Tour details on the company website here:
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