Subiaco Arts Centre‘s studio space was turned into a ‘live television studio’ for wunderkind choreographer Scott Elstermann‘s brilliantly conceived and executed dance theatre creation Foleyvision. Inspired by the art of foley and the 90s cultural institution that was and is Absolutely Fabulous, Foleyvision is a work in three parts that reimagines a ‘live taping’ of an episode of the iconic sitcom with a blocking rehearsal, a sound rehearsal, and a final performance where all the layers merge.
As we enter the studio, the stage space is bustling with the preshow activities of cast and crew; a clothes rack, a makeup table, a camera, some furniture, and a prop table surround the periphery of the stage space, while a ladder juts up from the upstage right quadrant in front of a large screen. The audience is buzzing, and crew are moving things into place under the direction of Floor Manager Maree Cole. Three performers, Bernadette Lewis, Giorgia Schijf, and Nadia Priolo, ready themselves too, quietly and calmly chatting, checking props, getting a few last little stretches in. Once Cole was satisfied that all was in order, she greeted the audience, gave us a brief introduction, and gave her cues to the cast and crew to start rolling.
Part 1, the ‘blocking rehearsal’, is performed with sober, greyscale, clockwork precision, and is about as far away from the bold, colourful, chaotic spirit of AbFab as you could possibly get. There are hints of comedy, but the physical language of slapstick is reduced to sans-serif forms. For those who are familiar with Elstermann’s work, it all seems a lot more serious (though by no means any less compelling and engrossing) than we’ve come to expect from him.
The show’s tone and palette gets significantly more colourful in Part 2, when the ‘sound rehearsal’ begins. Prop-laden tables take centre stage, along with several mics and various kinds of footwear, chains, tubes, bottles, and swishy fabrics. After the Floor Manager’s call, the trickiest section of the piece begins, as the performers intently watch a replay of part 1 on a screen at the back of the audience and create sound effects with all manner of objects. Part 2 delivers us straight into the heart of Elstermann’s proposal: that watching foley artists at work is akin to watching dancers perform an awkward dance that deserves an audience. This strange, elaborate sound dance requires the utmost precision, even more than Elstermann and the performers achieve in part 1. But now, the inherent comedy embedded in the AbFab context starts to visibly and audibly emerge, and the performers start to lean into it.
Part 3 sees everything come together: lights, props, costumes, pratfalls, strap-on schnozzes, and dialogue. I’m not quite sure who, if any one person, should get script-writing credit here, but the team have borrowed some memorable bits from different AbFab episodes to create its pastiche. The performers lip sync to a voiceover track that was pre-recorded by Maree Cole, Bernadette Lewis, Nicole Ward. The caricatures of Eddie, Patsy, and Saffy are spot on, and for this long-time AbFab devotee, the resemblance was sometimes uncanny.
The final act of Foleyvision isn’t simply a funny dance parody – though that, if successfully done, would have been enough; rather, it is a riotous display of an intricately designed, carefully planned, and expertly executed self-contained universe. We’re peering into the clockwork behind the bawdy face. We’re seeing how the gear which was activated by a spring in part one makes the whole thing tick in the end. The meaning behind the odd series of movements we pondered in part 1 becomes vibrantly clear in the final act as these skilled performers animate and emote, and it is delightful to reconstruct what has been deconstructed.
Foleyvision is a wonderfully unique concept that slices through genre and form, makes us take a new look at the familiar, and gives us plenty to laugh about as we watch with awe. Timing is everything in life, but especially in comedy, and Elstermann and his team of collaborators show us exactly how it’s done.
CICELY BINFORD
Foleyvision was performed at Subiaco Arts Centre from 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2024.
