The thing about tinfoil is that you can will it into submission, press it completely flat, and yet you cannot wrest from it its wrinkles. They remain, etched into its surface, a memory of where every bend and crease has been. Life is a little like tinfoil in this respect. Shaped - or scarred - by our experiences and memories, we carry our life’s learnings with us into the next thing that we do so that by the time we reach the end we are no longer smooth and straight edged but criss-crossed with a kaleidoscopic impression of the life we have led.
CRUNCH is a show that leaves a deep crease in the tinfoil wrapper of life, long beyond its short twenty minute duration. Performer Laura Gaudin takes us on a journey inside her own pseudo psyche, aided by innovative and ingenious lighting, designed and operated by Izzi Lao.
Gaudin’s spare and perfect world, from whose perfection she derives immense pleasure, is punctured by the arrival - from on high - of a silver foiled chippie packet. Though it delights her, its irregular form disturbs and confuses her. She wrestles with this new, confusing feeling before making her peace with its crumpled edge, cleaving it to her heart where it inspires her to joyful dance.
It’s a simple story, but with depth. Gaudin’s facial and full body gestures convey her meaning completely - so much so that at one showing a toddler loudly lamented ‘oh no,’ in response to a particular attitude of sadness. Lao’s wizardly tricks with light speak just as loudly, telling a story with every shimmer and flicker lending an aura of real magic.
The audience leave with a new lightness, munching on the offering of Proper Crisps at the door, perhaps learning to love and celebrate themselves a little more, crunchy parts and all.
by Rosheen FitzGerald
