Left - (l-r) Omar Ebrahim, Philip Larson, Deborah Kayser, Andrew Watts. Cover - (l-r) Omar Ebrahim, Deborah Kayser, Philip Larson. Photo - John SonesThe Navigator could not be described as a pleasant experience. And yet, it seems, that is the point. Audience members’ walking out half way through was almost to be expected in this provocative staging of Barrie Kosky’s latest directorial endeavour; a production that manages to pose the unanswerable question: ‘What is Art?’
Dabbling in experimentation of sound, particularly the human voice, The Navigator charts the journey from birth to annihilation. Erotic nuances are littered throughout to explore the nature of desire, while all too often this eroticism finds form in a projection of ugliness, even crassness. Are we expected to laugh or recoil? The Navigator continuously skirts this boundary and frequently crosses it with an artistic argument that won’t shut up.
Opening the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Navigator reflects the path to obscurity that this Festival is prone to take. It is undoubtedly a challenge to watch constantly grotesque imagery without asking, is this where we’re at; is this the level of expression needed to define artistic merit in the 21st Century? Or rather, is this what I have to endure to appreciate contemporary performance art?
Composer Liza Lim has been awarded international acclaim, and the height of imagination she imbues in this work is awe inspiring. Revealing her engagement with Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Lim’s score never relents. She employs both delicate and aggressive motifs in harmony, and finds a context for unconventional breathing techniques and the use of harmonics. Librettist Patricia Sykes adds a Gothic sensibility to Lim’s surreal imaginings, using language that charts the sublime territories of the human spirit: ‘exiles are naked lovers,’ ‘rapture and rupture are twins,’ ‘hope's genitals thrive in us’. The sound of cicadas fills the silences, never digressing from the sensorial bewilderment set up by the players.
But cicadas are one of the few familiar reference points we’re allowed, causing disappointment with an audience seeking to engage. This, however, is not a production that seeks to engage audiences. Shock? Yes. Provoke? Yes. Please? No. And yet crowd pleasing elements are utilized, such as giving the singers microphones; and men dressed half naked in women’s stockings, high-heels and carrying a handbag.
This is a work that will happily divide audiences, feeling proud that it can bring art to its limits and prompt discussion about the medium itself. An all consuming, fantastical exploration of identity and desire with a cast of exceptional merit sounds effortlessly appealing. But if a work does not speak to you; to you, it ultimately falls a few metres short of success.
Melbourne International Arts Festival and Brisbane Festival
The Navigator
Liza Lim
Venue: the Arts Centre, Playhouse
When: Thu 9 – Sat 11 Oct at 8pm
Sun 12 Oct at 2pm (Audio Description)
Duration: 1hr 40min no interval
Prices: Full $55 / Groups (8+) $49.50 / Conc $41.25 / Student/MF-Y $25
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 / www.melbournefestival.com.au