Hong Kong Arts Festival – I/In

One of the fastest selling events in this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival was I/In, a collaboration between dancer Akram Khan and actor Juliette Binoche. Khan has performed a number of times at the HKAF and two years ago I reviewed his magnificent show Sacred Monsters.

I/In is a risk that neither artist needed to take, at least from the perspective of fame and success. Khan is one of the leading dancers in the world and a unique voice in his field. Binoche is an acclaimed actress working in both English and French language films.

What they have created here pushes them both. Binoche is not a dancer, but does have tremendous physical presence and brings an amazing theatricality to the performance. In turn, Khan explores both acting and monologue as well as his dazzling physicality.

Each movement explored lust, conflict, passion, reconciliation, trust, sacrifice and wilfulness within the context of love and relationships. The narrative mode was biographical, archeological and confessional, moving from story and monologue to movement and physical exposition. The couple danced as a pair, as individuals in and out of sync and on their own.

The staging was minimal, black, wide and very effective. The only props were two chairs and one painted square backdrop (that at times evoked Rothko). The backdrop moved backwards and forwards, mimicked a cinema screen in one scene and suspended Binoche like a fly swatted on a wall in another. It even became a canvas that the pair painted with their own sweat in a slow and powerful movement.

Both performers showed their ability to not just work outside their strengths but express themselves powerfully in each other’s artistic forms. The result seldom felt forced and was, instead, fresh new and fluid.

[tags] Hong Kong Arts Festival, I/In [/tags]