This work by physical theatre company TOI, directed and produced by John Fabry, utilises a powerful combination of voice and movement. It comments on conformity and the power of the collective, as it plays out the evolution of masculine norms on stage.
One performer cautiously enters through smoke and eerie, low lighting, followed by the four others. One puffs out his chest, another snarls and stalks through the smoke like a monster. They are dressed in medieval hoods and loincloths, faces half covered and bodies smeared with black paint.
The first half of ICHOR sets up the world of the work. The costumes and the name ICHOR itself suggests an ancient, mythical time. The performers’ characterisation is that of a gang of barbarians or hunters. And, like a group of hunters, they begin a stepping pattern that stalks around the space, in and out of unison, and carries a rhythmic breath.
The performers’ vocalisations create a syncopated rhythm of heavy breathing, grunting, laughing and spitting. Alongside this, their movement cycles through jumping, falling, and throwing each other around the space. They also shift their focus, sometimes towards the audience, as they follow their prey.
As these patterns repeat and build, the cycles become like rituals – gesturing to the heavens again and again, taking turns to try and impress each other. Every so often one performer, to varying degrees of success, tries to break the mould. The others quicky encircle them. We begin to witness, in real time, how humans assign meaning to repeated behaviours, and how a behaviour might become ‘normal’ or ‘taboo’.
Through the repetitions, vocalisations gradually become text. This work is very clever in its use of language. Throughout, it is unclear whether the script is a real language, something created between the performers, or a mix of languages other than English. This lack of understanding is important as it makes the audience really focus in on each performer’s delivery. We see confessions, arguments, a call to arms, soldiers recounting a battle, trying to prove that the decisions theymade were the right ones. All delivered incomprehensibly, but with a deep desire to make us understand. Similarly there are repeated gestures obviously created with something specific in mind, but their true meaning is never fully revealed. Although we can guess. The audience has the intriguing task of trying to understand the language and rules of this society that we are simply not privy to.
