Homogeneous (2012), Review

By adelyn-1800, 31 May, 2022
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4.00
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out of5
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We've always known Pat Toh as a great physical actor, but as it turns out, her talents run deeper than this. Homogenous is a solo performance - self-conceived, -directed and -scripted - inspired by the theme of walking: it's a solitary, natural and non-mechanised approach to the voyage of life.

Audience members are ushered into the darkened theatre, which has itself been turned into a work of installation art. We follow a long line of printed text against the wall, stepping in time with our breath, according to its directions. There are no seats: instead we assemble in front of Toh, who is seated at a desk in the centre of the performance area, writing on an endless scrip of paper.

The theatrical experience consists of multiple threads: the transcendent writings of the American activist Peace Pilgrim, expressionist extracts from Tufnell and Cricknay's Body Space Image, and Toh's personal anecdotes about her dying grandfather and the act of running away from school. These sequences balance one another: some are relentlessly avant-garde, augmented by the sensory overload of Andy Lim and Zulkifle Mahmod's light and sound design, while others are evocative and utterly emotionally convincing.

One could argue that there is nothing terribly innovative or complex about this piece. However, it is its very simplicity that makes it powerful and elegant. One hopes that it can be reprised in other locations.

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50 seconds
Teaser Name
Ng Yi-Sheng
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Whole date is confirmed