A dance performance that credits two mountaineering consultants – now that’s intriguing. Claire Cunningham is dressed in hiking gear: backpack, flask, a transparent pouch for a map around her neck. Her journey only takes her around the small theatre, counting steps, scaling the seats of the auditorium, finding shelter in a mountain of peaks made of tangled crutches, but her ramble becomes a meditation on finding our way along life’s unexpected paths.
It’s a solo show, but Cunningham is not alone on stage. There’s her BSL interpreter, and members of the audience are invited to slouch on beanbags (all are relaxed performances, with accommodation for various access needs). We’re not to worry if our bodies – or our beanbags – make a noise, it’s all part of the landscape, she tells us in a sort of pre-expedition briefing. A person who uses crutches – as Cunningham does – expends twice as much energy as someone who doesn’t, she says, so there might be breaks. And when they come, she asks if we need to stretch, take a drink, bringing us back to our own bodies. The Scottish performer has an open, easy way of connecting, and reminds us that we’re on this trip together.
