Trojans – epic yet contemporary themes explored with a choreography that creates an intimate connection with the audience (Luail at Island Arts Centre)

The last time I saw work by Luail, their inaugural show occupied the full width of the Lyric’s main stage. Last week, the experience was much more intimate with Luail’s revival of Philip Connaughton’s Trojans asking the audience to share the stage with the talented ensemble for portions of the 70-minute performance.

A huge cube built from trussing occupied the main hall in Lisburn’s Island Arts Centre. Elevated screens requested (but insist they did not ‘order’) the audience to mill around. The dancers crawled out. Soon, we were encouraged to circulate and inspect the now upright and static performers before they began to move once more.

Inspired by Virgil’s The Aeneid, death is quickly introduced. Followed by themes of isolation, displacement, migration, war, and kowtowing to figures in power. Unspoken questions are raised about why no one intervenes or even offers comfort when someone falls. Fear? Self-preservation? Survival of the fittest?

Once the day-glo orange netting is removed from the row of seats on each side of the square stage, we rested … for a while. The netting hints at dangerous sea journeys and becoming trapped in other people’s fights. More audience movement was invited, as no one should ever get too comfortable or relaxed when they’re not in control of their destiny. Death returned at the end of the performance, and this time the audience had been sufficiently coached to join the cast and become part of the story as the screens asked: “Would you be willing to die for the greater good?”

Veteran (and iconic) dancer Joanna Banks strutted around the stage, embodying a quiet sense of absolute power and authority. Playing Juno – queen of the gods and hater of the Trojans – she was seated at ever-increasing heights above contradiction in structures created by Robyn Byrne, Jou-Hsin Chu, Clara Kerr, Sean Lammer, Tom O’Gorman, Hamza Pirimo, Rosie Stebbing and Meghan Stevens.

Like last May’s Chora, the company’s keen sense of space was once again on display, moving at frantic speed across the enclosed stage without clipping other performers. There was a strong sense of trust with backward falls into unseen arms, and a rather beautiful moment as one dancer climbed a hill of human bodies with theh path ahead not fully clear. Emily Ní Bhroin earth-coloured costumes grounded the performance. Luca Truffarelli’s video work triggered scene changes in the audience’s minds with sea, fire and a vista of destroyed buildings. Oberman Knocks’ electronic soundscape was intense: earplugs are handed out to everyone on entry, just in case.

The self-contained set dominated the otherwise naked volume of the Lisburn theatre hall. The production was big and bold, yet intense and intimate. Trojans once again demonstrates the skill of the full time Luail company members, this time up close and very personal, with the audience asked to look into the performers’ eyes. Virgil’s study of violence and conflict and Aeneas’ difficult migration journey still speaks loudly into today’s world, and Luail’s revival of Trojans demonstrates how dance as an artform can be intimate rather than distant, and engender emotion and reflect world affairs in a 10m x 10m stage and not just create a spectacle at a distance.

Trojans finished its tour (Dublin, Galway and Lisburn) on Thursday 30 April.

Photo credit: Luca Truffarelli

Appreciated this review? Why not click on the Buy Me a Tea button!