In an interview he once gave, the popular American writer Scott Spenser (‘Endless Love’, ‘Waking The Dead’) eloquently described his creative process, ‘I feel a need to have certain feelings and experiences described, to see certain ideas pursued, and at one point or another, I made the audacious choice of appointing myself as the person who could conceivably do this’.

With his new show ASSEMBLY, Chunky Moves’s Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek has made the audacious choice to conceive a piece about the enigmatic notion of human being and crowds and the result is a revelatory, mesmerising, simply beautiful night at the theatre.

The combination of the agility of eight of Chunky Moves’s finest dancers with sweeps and waves of medieval and contemporary choral music, performed by the wonderful Sydney Philharmonic Choir, proved to be an intoxicating recipe.

With his piece Obarzanek proved his premise, that people indeed do change when they become part of a crowd. What seems to happen is that people lose themselves, their own individuality and merge into the group ethos. This can be good or bad, depending on the circumstance, whether it be an English soccer crowd, or a massive crowd being ‘hypnotised’ by a charismatic dictator.

One of the major highlights of this year’s Sydney Festival, Chunky Move’s and Victorian Opera’s (Australia) production of ASSEMBLY opened at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place on Wednesday 11th January and played until Saturday 14th January, 2012.

© David Kary

15th January, 2012

Tags: SYDNEY THEATRE REVIEWS- ASSEMBLY, SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2012, GIDEON OBARZANEK, CHUNKY MOVE DANCE COMPANY, VICTORIAN OPERA, SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIR, JEFF BUSBY.