David Bolger’s revival and re-imagining of Boxes, for his dance company Cois Ceim Dance, at Garter Lane, was a multi-media feast for eye and spirit. Using fifty or more cardboard cartons of about a metre cubed and with a most impressive Eamon Fox, lighting design, a pumpin’ pulsating sound track from Ivan Birthistle and Vincent Doherty, with beautiful animation from Jym Daly, this was an explosion in the head, a journey that was mesmeric, as boxes became a physical metaphor for houses, passageways, directions, discovery and a tram car – boxes full of people.
One box revealed a cube of mirror squares that lit up the audience and venue like a magic show with lots of transformations. Transformations of shape and concept, of imagination and sleight of body.
Two male dancers, Jason E Bernard and Lee Clayden, populated the stage with a host of exploratory images, I didn’t much care for the recessionary images as if some update of social consciousness was required, but it came across to me as needless ticking of the boxes.
At times it was as perplexing as Lost and mostly it was discovery, as if for the first time.
By the end, I was stunned, my imagination zapped and I sat out a well deserved standing ovation. This was awesome dance, awesome theatre, a deeply satisfying experience that enthralled me, all seventy minutes of its spectacle and daring.
