FRINGE REVIEW: “Are You Guilty?”

Are you Guilty? – Venue 22: Dance Base – Studio 3 – 4.50pm

THE fringe this year has featured some creative and experimental physical theatre from talented troupes, and TOB Group’s Are You Guilty? and Barcode were no exception. Expertly choregraphed by Min Kim and skilfully performed by Kim along with Byeonguk Cho, Yunjin Jang, Wookjin Jeong, Sangheon Kim, Sun Kim, and Sejin Park, each performance blends hip-hop, theatre and dance, and had audience members in awe of the group’s incredible talent.

Are You Guilty? is a simple set; one folding table, two chairs, three performers dressed bare footed in drab suits. Its power lies in its unease, causing conflicting emotion within the audience as the three dancers interact, each abrupt and often eerie movement causing a chain reaction in the other. Most of the sound comes from their hands slapping against the wooden table, the movement of the chair legs on the ground or their often-confrontational contact with each other.

Whether the setting is an office or an interrogation room, your guess is as good as any, but manic grins, desperate silent wails, eerie shadows, and finger pointing play with the tangled web of who the perpetrator and victim is, but it also has the effect of making the audience themselves feel like a bystander.

Barcode was less intense but no less powerful. Beautifully choreographed with the use of a wall of packing boxes, moved around to suit the scene like Tetris, this energetic segment plays on a factory setting, exemplifying the mania of mass consumerism. The latter half of this was especially effective and awe-inducing as each performer juggled with each other a box with a letter, interchanging between spelling produce, product and barcode, emphasising that continuous cycle of capitalism and consumerism.

This was an ambitious show executed well, both in performance and message, so kudos to both the choreographer and performers.  Grab yourself a ticket to Are You Guilty? before it’s too late.

4.5 STARS

Get the full details about the show here.

Plus, read more reviews on Scottish Field’s Fringe pages.