REVIEW: Poppy, Eliot Smith Dance at Gosforth Civic
A warning born of remembrance
It’s 10 years since Gosforth Civic Theatre was taken on by disability arts charity Liberdade, 15 years since the foundation of Eliot Smith Dance (ESD)… and this piece was inspired by the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
That was actually last year, which is when this vivid reworking of the company’s original 2018 production of Poppy had its first performance – at Alnwick Playhouse on Remembrance Sunday.
Nevertheless, an alignment of anniversaries made this penultimate North East performance on a follow-up spring tour a little bit special.
Thanks to the work done by the Liberdade Community Development Trust, Gosforth Civic is now a warm, welcoming and comfortable venue – and good for this art form with its banked seating reminiscent of Dance City.
The poppy as a symbol of remembrance dates from the First World War, when the blood red flower sprang up all over the cratered battlefields, so it’s appropriate that Poppy opens with the words of In Flanders Fields.
John McCrae, a Canadian surgeon serving in France, wrote his poem after the death of a close friend, immortalising the sight of poppies among hastily erected crosses.
But the subsequent words of Churchill mark a flash forward to the Second World War when we meet a young couple hearing the news. They are danced – beautifully and tenderly – by Yamit Salazar and Amy Becke.
Her dress is as red as a poppy, he is soon in khaki. With a period radio and fireplace setting the scene, the couple mark a seismic moment when their lives, and those of many others, are changed forever.
In a post-performance talk, Eliot explained that Poppy in its earlier manifestation had been purely abstract. In Poppy mark two we have these young people whose fortunes we follow through the succeeding short scenes.
But the narrative thread, taking us through training, combat and the ultimate exhilaration of VE Day, with the relief of victory matched by the prospect of peace, has evidently proved no hindrance to Eliot in strutting his choreographic stuff.
Along with the marching, saluting and cheering, the challenging moves of his great American dance heroes, the likes of Martha Graham and Paul Taylor, are discernible in the duets of Salazar and Becke, while the accompanying music by North East composer Adam Johnson ranges freely.
From the ’40s swing of the early scenes, we get a guttural blast of heavy metal once battle commences – the effect intensified by spotlights directed at us from the back of the stage – and finally (this information gleaned from the programme) a Palestinian folk song.
The point of the piece, said Eliot afterwards, was less to recapture the mood of either or both world wars but to remind us that wars are still happening – not that any of us probably need reminding.
All five dancers, the others being Karishma Young, Daniel James and Harry Wilson (stepping in at relatively short notice) give everything to a piece which has them in celebratory mode towards the end, representatives of a jubilant crowd.
It’s not quite the end, though… for with peace comes a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the couple who have been our guides and companions. The dust of war may settle but the human costs continue to mount, possibly forever.
Poppy’s last performances are in Spennymoor on February 28 and Tunbridge Wells on March 7. See the ESD website for details.
And keep an eye open for further ESD events through this anniversary year. A company which has earned its place in the region’s cultural fabric deserves all the support it can get.