A complex exploration of uncomfortable ideas
To describe too extensively what Goner is about would be a disservice to any prospective theatregoers, writes Melina Block.
A refreshingly creative yet cohesive blend of dance, spoken word, singing and horror, Marikiscrycrycry (the alias of choreographer and movement director Malik Nashad Sharpe) stages a startling, unnerving, yet often quite funny, piece of alternative theatre.
There is something incredibly confronting about Goner. After a – perhaps too long – sequence of bum-shaking and hip-gyrating to booming dancehall beats, our leading man suddenly faces the audience. In a blinding flash of white light, his mouth, pouring with blood, is revealed to us. Is this the first time we have actually seen his face rather than his body? How did we get here? How long has he been bleeding?
Horror, as a genre, has long combined sex and violence. Goner leans into this, but it doesn’t stop there. Striking sound and movement allude to racial violence and systemic oppression, the presence of real-world horrors looming over and tainting our consumption of the performance before us.
At its heart, Goner is a complex exploration of vital yet uncomfortable ideas, made possible due to the strong technical foundations of Marikiscrycrycry. He is equally adept at belting out a Britney Spears song (yes, this does happen), as he is at confidently leaping and dancing with great physical tension, or narrating the tale of the murder of his seven friends.
While this is undoubtedly a thoroughly entertaining show, it succeeds in getting you to question what it is that we find entertaining; the perspectives from which stories are told and shaped and the role of you, the viewer, both of events unfolding onstage and in real life.
I sincerely hope Marikiscrycrycry has more stories to tell.
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London, SW11 5TN until May 10th.
Booking and full details: https://bac.org.uk/whats-on/goner/
