Boris Charmatz: Manger review — woman puts whole foot in her mouth in eerie, unsettling and beautiful show

There's nothing usual about this show, says Lyndsey Winship, but it doesn't evolve enough
Highly unusual: Manger explores basic human urges (Picture: Ursula Kaufmann)
Ursula Kaufmann
Lyndsey Winship20 May 2015

Have you ever watched a woman stuff her whole foot in her mouth, toe by toe? It’s certainly one reason to see Boris Charmatz’s new piece, Manger. The French conceptual choreographer follows his weekend takeover of Tate Modern — filling the Turbine Hall with dancers — with a move to Sadler’s Wells Theatre. It’s a more usual space for performance, except there’s nothing usual about this show, not least the fact that in this set-up, we the audience are all sitting on stage too, getting a close-up view of toe sucking and more.

Manger’s subject is the mouth, the moist gateway to many of life’s pleasures. The 14 dancers arrive with sheets of rice paper that they proceed to eat, chomping and chewing, one nibbling delicately, another stuffing the whole thing in her gob. They gulp rhythmically, bodies crumpling to the floor with the sounds of their contracting gullets mixed with sexual grunts, ending up a sprawling mass of basic human urges.

But from that primeval swamp, music rises, the dancers’ breathless voices resonating in hollow octaves, anarchic cacophony and haunting harmonies. The soundtrack ranges from Beethoven and Corelli to The Kills. It’s eerie and unsettling and beautiful.

So far, so interesting — the movement of the mouth is one mostly overlooked in dance. But then what? The problem with Manger is that it doesn't evolve. Charmatz is interested in changing the experience of the spectator and the way we watch performance. But when presented with an hour-long show, is it outmoded to ask that the creator develops that idea and takes it somewhere over its duration? Sometimes a foot sandwich alone isn’t enough.

Ends tonight (0844 412 4300, sadlerswells.com)

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