Choreographer: Lewys Holt
The basic ruse of Empty Orchestra is to have three dancers: one, attempting unsuccessfully to croon along to karaoke favourites; the other two, to respond to the performance with wild dance antics. So there are no apologies to be made for the fact that the three performers – Luke Divall, Lewys Holt (who also choreographs), and Inari Hulkkonen – all manage to totally kill each and every one of the show’s tunes.
Kicking off with Wham’s Last Christmas which sets the tone for Holt’s piece, with the two dancers wiggling, waving arms, playing the doggy and weightlifting in accompaniment to the truly dreadful vocals. Please don’t think I’m being over-critical here: the vocals are totally in par with the kind of style you would here in a late night local pub.
For Tracey Chapman’s Fast Car, Divall takes on quietly whispered vocals (even then out of tune) to great comical effect. In the background there is some dizzying dancing, shuffling, reaching out and other shape-making, all also totally hilarious. Next up is Kirka’s Varrella Virran with vociferous vocals, bizarre performance and audience participation encouraged too. For Dancing in the Moonlight the words are twisted with Hulkkonen taking on some breathless and sexy vocals.
There is a shift for Dolly Parton’s Jolene with the introduction of an acoustic guitar as accompaniment to the karaoke backing track. For this the vocals are gentle but still succeed in subverting the lyrics. This reveals a deeper side that belies the work’s more obvious playfulness. This segues into an ambient musical interlude with the mike applied to the guitar’s strings and the addition of slide guitar too. The result is a dreadful drone and a piercing din, quite disconcerting after the melodic tunefulness of what we had heard before. To break this Blondie’s One Way or Another pipes up and the lyrics for this are given over to its demonic and dark connotations. The dancers meanwhile take to frolicking around the stage, at one point with quite a nasty fall (deliberate?!)
The Aerosmith classic I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing creates some more balletic moves in the dancers and a falsetto in the vocals. For once there is some silence and this adds to the intensity of the mime and movement. The fun continues until a finale of Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called to Say I Love You with the lyrics as a surtitle for audience participation. So there is a feelgood end to what has been something of an emotional rollercoaster ride.
Seth Rook Williams’ lighting focuses on the sparkling silver backdrop that provides iridescent and incandescent visual treats throughout. Holt’s choreography is simply masterful but seems to allow for improvisation. All three performers are pushed to their limits and, as mentioned above, make no excuse for their lack of vocal talent. But we feel a sense of catharsis and release as a result of their passionate and provocative performance.
Reviewed on 25th March 2022
