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A Little Treasure

The bubble machine is the first thing that hits you as you enter. There are bubbles everywhere. The second is the energy—families with babies and small children are crammed into every corner, bringing a kinetic force to the auditorium. It's pandemonium—all going off like popcorn in a pan.

Performance

Scottish Dance Theatre: “Pirates!” by Joan Clevillé

Place

Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee, Scotland, April 5 2025

Words

Lorna Irvine

Scottish Dance Theatre in “Pirates!” by Joan Clevillé. Photograph by Alastair More

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Artistic director of the wonderful Scottish Dance Theatre, choreographer Joan Clevillé, has crafted, in collaboration with the dancers, a show which never buckles under the weight of its considerable ambition. There's everything thrown into the mix—a feather fight; dancers rolling in a pair of inflatable Zorb balls, inventive underwater dance sequences—yet it works, with a sharp script and movement which is both accessible to all, and multi-layered. Clevillé always had a playful spirit in his work, but he manages to weave funny storylines together with potent messages about the troubled times we live in. The two are effectively reconciled without a preachy narrative that alienates the audience.

Tom (a brilliantly Puckish Dylan Read) is the classic worker ant, tiring of his quotidian rut of working in a sports store. He'd rather let his imagination fly free, penning wistful adventure tales of pirates on the high seas. But first, there's team building exercises for the hapless salesman to endure. Yay.

Read anchors the whole production beautifully, bringing pathos, his bouffon clowning technique and likeable charm to the role. He has an innate understanding of mimesis and physical theatre, as well as the spontaneity of dance primarily made for children.

Jessie Roberts-Smith and Dylan Read in “Pirates!” by Joan Clevillé. Photograph by Genevieve Reeves

Meanwhile, Clevillé's precise choreography runs from acrobatic tumbling to sixties shimmy; circle dance to balletic floorwork. It's all accompanied by a virtuosic soundtrack by Luke Sutherland, equally at home playing Dick Dale style surf guitar, as romping klezmer music, or a ragga workout. It's equal parts exhausting and exhilarating but the excellent company look so effortless.

When the titular pirates do appear (with sweet yet mischievous work from the ensemble) Matthias Strahm's design, with kaleidoscopic lighting from Emma Jones, really comes into its own, invoking a magical Atlantis. There's a glorious sea scene involving masked comedy zombies and squishy sound effects from Read (simply using a microphone) which reminds me of the inspired absurdism of The Mighty Boosh at their most surreal.

Captain Sandy Rodgers (Faith Prendergast) is also of note, a petite firecracker with wit and delicacy in her dancing to hook anyone in. She's more than a foil for Ben McEwen's debonair baddie Admiral O'Greed, as the pair dual verbally and physically, sashaying elegantly together even as they tear strips off one another. Their fight dance is courtly but playful. 

From left: Kai Tomioka, Orla Hardie, Glenda Gheller, Maya Bodiley, Jessie Roberts-Smith (centre) in “Pirates!” by Joan Clevillé. Photograph by Genevieve Reeves

Another sequence sees the pirates hypnotised by O'Greed and turned into animals. Some children in the audience, eyes wide with concern, look as though they are ready to run onto the stage and rescue their beloved characters.

Even some sporting equipment is cleverly deployed as props. A hula hoop steers the imaginary ship. Hockey sticks double up as cutlasses, and the big moment of crowd interaction—with performers dashing into the audience—proves enormous fun for small and big kids alike.

Essentially, it walks the plank skillfully between effervescent dance, social satire and family show without feeling trite or twee. It’s a little treasure indeed, full of heart and infectious energy. There's enough depth to sate older people, cute storytelling for little ones, and a versatile team of dancers for pure dance aficionados. That Clevillé can throw in themes of interconnectivity, our consumerist society and self-actualization is extremely impressive and sophisticated. The fart jokes work too—who doesn't enjoy a fart joke! I guess it's a reminder that we're all children, really.

The show tours across Scotland, heading to Eden Court, Inverness, Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling and His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, until July 20th.

 

Lorna Irvine


Based in Glasgow, Lorna was delightfully corrupted by the work of Michael Clark in her early teens, and has never looked back. Passionate about dance, music, and theatre she writes regularly for the List, Across the Arts and Exeunt. She also wrote on dance, drama and whatever particular obsession she had that week for the Shimmy, the Skinny and TLG and has contributed to Mslexia, TYCI and the Vile Blog.

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