Luke Murphy has brought his colossal, episodic dance theatre work Volcano to the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of Brisbane Festival 2024, and it is everything you could want from a festival work – big on ambition and impact, flawlessly delivered, and resisting convention and easy categorisation.
Volcano premiered in Galway International Arts Festival in 2021 and was written, directed, and choreographed by Luke Murphy, founder and artistic director of the Ireland-based dance theatre company Attic Projects. Volcano was performed by Murphy and Alistair Goldsmith for this Brisbane season.
Rolling dance, theatre, and sci-fi thriller miniseries into one performance, Volcano was a marathon four-hour performance told across four “episodes” of 45 minutes each, with brief “pauses” in between the first three and a longer interval before the final episode. The stage space is contained within a box, with large windows and the audience seated on two sides. Lighting is used to hide or illuminate the contents. Within these boundaries are two performers, and the audience watches them converse and pass the time. The men are prompted, startled, by the crackling of a vintage radio in the back wall – music begins, and they seem to take their places both frantically and begrudgingly.
Throughout the episodes, the two men dance, sing, and perform monologues into a camera. They seemed to lurch unwillingly between scenes, dictated by the radio. In the downtime, Murphy’s character tries to focus on his book, and keeping everything in its place, while Goldsmith’s character listens closely, plagued by visions of a diver in standard diving dress. From wedding speeches to raves to classic films, Volcano draws on a vast range of styles and influences but the result feels coherent and the physical language of the work is clearly defined.
In the first episode, the audience can only guess at the reasons for these motions, and for their confinement: an apocalypse bunker? incarceration? space travel? The sci-fi worldbuilding unravels slowly, from the second episode onward, until a clear picture of the situation forms. The audience were instructed to remain in their seats for the 5-minute pauses between episodes 1-3, and were then required to leave the theatre for the final, thirty-minute interval.
Murphy was onstage for the entire four hours of Volcano, a Herculean effort given the demands of the performance. His energy never wavered and he was a riveting dancer to watch, with clear classical training in his bearing and movement but a thrust of contemporary energy and acrobatic flair. Goldsmith maintained pace ably, and the onstage connection between the characters was very strong. I feel that it is still rare to see choreography that enmeshes masculinity and tenderness so fully and movingly in as Volcano does.
While the dance elements alone would have been monumentally impressive, Murphy and Goldsmith also gave beautifully emotional and engagingly theatrical performances, both as the characters they must play when the radio blares and, later, as the characters who first meet each other in the confined space of the pod. Their synchronicity was flawless even as it maintained a sense of fresh energy.
The Volcano set, designed by Alyson Cummins and Pai Rathaya, seemed like a dilapidated living room – there was a couch, and a shelf of records, but the wallpaper was crumbling and there was no door. Posters changed to represent the passage of time, and the two men literally tore down the walls at different times in an attempt to understand or escape their fate. Murphy and Goldsmith were constantly shifting props, stringing and re-stringing lighting, and directing one another from behind the camera; even scenes of destruction and desperation flowed with ease and grace.
Lighting design by Stephen Dodd dictated what the audience could see within the pod and was critical to the reveals and the shifting scenes of the work, from flashing disco lighting to the strobing earthquakes. Costuming designed by Pai Rathaya, with Associate Costume Designer Laura Fajardo Castro, was taken on and off by the artists as the scenes repeated and progressed, distinguishing each, from casual clothes and disco-fever-esque suits to a tuxedo and sequinned hot pants.
Composition and sound design by Rob Moloney, with music mixing by Chaz Moloney, contributed to high pressure sound design that continued to ratchet up the tension. Music from a range of eras was included, and the opening drums of Sing Sing Sing became increasingly eerie as they repeated. Pre-recorded film, created by Pato Cassinoni, was also incorporated into the performance and was crucial to the worldbuilding and escalating revelations.
The work ruminated on time, legacy, and the desire to be remembered, looking forward to an imagined future in an effort to understand what is important to people in the present. The connection of the title to the work remained unclear, but that was of little consequence in the scope of what it achieved and how it made me feel.
Ambitious, articulate, and absorbing, Volcano is a unique performance piece that borrows from many genres and formats while refusing to be defined by one, and the strength, stamina, artistry, and attention to detail in this performance were awe-inspiring.
Volcano will be performed at the Powerhouse Theatre, New Farm, from 30 August – 14 September 2024
For ticketing and further information, visit the Brisbane Festival website
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