Kidd Pivot’s Assembly Hall is a salubrious tribute to the power of collective fantasy, a touching exploration of grief, and a sprinkle of delightful New York camp to usher in the new season. Shown at Sadler’s Wells this ecstatic piece of dance theatre makes an exceptional and rare showcase of creative lip-syncing, blurring the lines between play and dance show. A product of startling imagination, Assembly Hall captures a unique aspect of the theatre; the gift of performance as a means for tapping buried emotions, and a flourishing live spectacle.
Written by Johnathan Young, and choreographed by Crystal Pite, storied collaborators who have previously worked together on pieces like Betroffenheit, Revisor, and The Statement, Assembly Hall was first performed in 2023 to avid reception. Drawing on Young’s own experiences with grief and trauma, alongside Pite’s dance innovations, the show weaves a delicate and heart-felt narrative, born from unlikely circumstances and an equally unique presentation. Featuring a group of medieval re-enactors, who meet annually to stage massive and melodramatic battles amongst themselves in the eponymous locale, the show’s story unfolds to reveal a missing piece to this captivating ensemble, symbolised in the presence of an empty chair.
What follows is revelation, an esoteric exploration of what may have befallen their missing friend and comrade in arms, and a subtle blurring of fantasy with reality. Of course, as re-enactors, these characters necessarily indulge in exorbitant and ebullient playacting; donning suits of flimsy armour, weapons and embracing all the inflated emotion that comes with the territory of medieval heraldry and fairy tales, but things begin to take a turn as their re-enactment session unexpectedly becomes a vehicle to explore their own grief.
However, though Assembly Hall isn’t afraid to broach the darker reaches of human emotion, it never quite loses its brevity, its sense of fun, and the humour which remains an essential part of the experience. Drawing on a set of exaggerated characters, the real joy of the piece comes from how the vocal performances interweave with the dancers onstage. In what has become a signature for Young and Pite, the dancers often mime according to a narrative being read by professional voice actors over the speakers. Like puppets controlled by unseen hands, their figures are manipulated expertly in time with the audio; sometimes providing humorous caricatures, and at others, ghouls, and monsters. The results are undeniable: it becomes impossible to peel your eyes away.
Above all, Assembly Hall is a nourishing and vital show. Audiences at Sadler’s Wells should expect to laugh, to be moved, and most of all to come away from the performance sharing in the same love of life and theatre that so clearly imbues the piece’s creators and the dancers themselves. Grief is often defined as love without its object; it’s the edges of a wound where something has been lost or stolen. However, far from simply sitting with this feeling, from being paralysed, the talents at Kidd Pivot have woven it something incredibly tender, joyful, and life-affirming instead.
You can catch, Assembly Hall at Edinburgh International Festival from 22nd – 24th August 2024.
