Last night I joined a packed house to share in Vortex. Admittedly, I didn’t notice when selecting shows that I was going to my second production by the Non Nova Company. (Usually I prefer to diversify). After enjoying Afternoon of a Foehn, I expected that Vortex would definitely surprise and satisfy, and I settled in to the bad bucket seat with anticipation.
When Vortex begins, anyone who has seen Afternoon of a Foehn might think that the cast and crew have launched the wrong show. The familiar colourful characters grace the stage and I suspect that the same track of music was used too. I was rather disappointed.
Just as I decided I’d been cheated, everything changed. The oversized seemingly male figure involved us in a wild and indescribable frenzied attack on everything around him. The destruction noticeably shifted everyone in their seats. The sense of ruthlessness was disconcerting and stirring.
What unfolds is a battle, with darkness, with the self, with the dark self. I was catapulted in to a crazy unsettling space. Such sublime vulnerability offered by the performer, who we only realise is a woman once the battle has torn layers of her apart, left me startled and moved. — Sarah Roberson
