It Folds

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It Folds is most certainly a show that requires unfurling. Brokentalkers and Junk Ensemble's angular inquiry into death and trauma treads delicate lines between the agony of performing stories about death and the bleak continuation of life after the loss of a loved one.

Ostensibly about the abduction of a child, this often imaginative, surrealist combination of dance, physical theatre and music covers a broad spectrum of grief. The family attempt to articulate the depth of their loss by abandoning words altogether. Many scenes celebrate the boy’s missed birthdays, as a grandmother sits with a party hat and plays a rather distressing game of word association.

An actor steps out dressed as a ghost. “Can you see me?” he asks. In fact, the only part of him that we can really make out are his trainers. This initial image captures the spirit of It Folds rather well: horrifying yet ludicrous. To look upon a ghost is to picture both death and a memory of the deceased: a fierce fusion of terror and love. As we are taken through the stages of the family’s grief, these two central motifs jostle for power.

A show filled with such silent anguish appears to creep past its audience like a ghost ship sailing through a vast ocean. The problem is balance, as scenes must lock together with just enough cohesion to create a satisfactory end. While It Folds works towards this, it never quite delivers its emotional clincher, and simply disappears from view.