The Panic Room, Inverness review: 'an exciting new addition to Scottish dance'
This innovative show from Eden Court’s new resident dance company is full or promise, writes Kelly Apter
The Panic Room, Eden Court, Inverness ★★★★
A chaotic mind often spills over into its surroundings, and the character at the centre of The Panic Room is drowning in literal and metaphorical mess. On a stage strewn with paper, a novelist attempts to restructure and finish his latest book, gathering up pages but never quite clearing his head or the floor. He’s not the only one panicking in PCK Dance’s new work, however, and the publicity team around him is buzzing with a similar chaotic energy.
We know this, not only because their movement is urgent and frenetic, but through an interesting theatrical device rarely seen in dance. Every move the dancers make during the first half is accompanied by recorded dialogue, like invisible speech bubbles above their heads. A strategy that helps convey the characters’ situational strife, and gives rise to choreography that’s both expressive and dynamic.
Company founders James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight seem incapable of creating a step that isn’t interesting, and are equally compelling as performers. They also have a strong eye for talent, and recruiting Isabelle Evans and Amy McEntee was a smart move. Having cut their teeth at some of the best dance companies in the world, all four have technical prowess in spades and are endlessly watchable.
In the second half, most of the dialogue falls away, leaving the choreography to speak for itself. Which, as the novelist’s real and fictional worlds begin to blur and unravel, leads to some truly poetic movement.
Hats off to Eden Court Theatre, who recently welcomed PCK Dance with open arms as their resident dance company. For while there are dramaturgical issues at play here, and a definite need for narrative clarity, The Panic Room signals the arrival of an exciting new addition to the Scottish dance ecology.
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