This glorious enchanting show combines two things not usually considered as being able to be blended together – dance and radio shows.
Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life. Under Glass’s editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honours for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including five Peabody awards.
Glass’s show is heard each week by over 2.2 million listeners on more than 500 public radio stations in the United States, Australia and Canada, with another 2.2 million downloading each podcast. A television adaptation of This American Life ran on Showtime for two seasons in 2007 and 2008, winning three Emmys. Glass is one of the producers of Mike Birbiglia’s new film Don’t Think Twice, and produced and co-wrote Birbiglia’s first film Sleepwalk with Me.
Glass states at the opening of the show that radio shows and dance “have no business” being together on stage, and yet vaudeville style mix of dance, technology (via Glass’ tablet) and storytelling work splendidly well in this show.
Snappy lighting, blackouts (for the ‘radio show’ segments) and voice-overs are blended with the dance.
The narrative is erudite, powerful, warm, witty, sarcastic and at times very poignant. The performance examines some of the big issues in life; love , marriage advice, teenage awkwardness and death.
There is a theme of loss running throughout the show which deals with disillusion and disappointment but also comes across as being comical and hopeful.
There are also some Sydney /Melbourne wisecracks . Various stories are selected from highlights over almost twenty years of Glass’ show, including memorable cameos from former US poet laureate Donald Hall, philosopher Alain de Botton, and ordinary people such as a boy nervously waiting outside his school dance.
The performance also includes a meditation on a dancer’s life and the daily grind of being in a long running show (there are plenty of Riverdance references in Act 1) and how short a dancer’s performing career can be particularly given the long years of training required.
Both dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass are interviewed separately by Glass. The two dancers give sleek, polished performances . Mostly they perform in unison, precisely synchronized whilst Glass comments on their dancing from the sidelines.
Dance styles ranged from vaudeville, contemporary dance , musical/showbiz , baton twirling , and there were even hints of Tharp, Kylian ,Bausch and de Keersmaeker.
One major highlight was the heartbreaking table top duet linked into a poet mourning the death of his wife, with one life departing, whilst another life stays behind facing the loss.
At one time the show asks what makes dancers dance, and furthermore what is it about dance that makes dancers happy?!
As the title says the show is divided into three ‘’ acts’’ . The concert hall was reconfigured, black curtains transforming it into a more ‘traditional ‘theatre space and masking the choir stalls . A miniature vaudeville stage curtain glows in the middle of the stage, there are several simple costume changes- the costumes were mostly in neutral colours or black and white, slick suits and/or plain lines of skirts and tops for the dancers. Bright washes of light and bursts of confetti created the visual colour.
The show did indeed ‘ end with a bang’ , on a bright , hopeful note with the audience cheering ecstatically .
IRA GLASS THREE ACTS, TWO DANCERS, ONE RADIO HOST played at the Sydney Opera House on July 17 and 18.
The three year tour was originally planned to end in Sydney but has now been extended to London.