Look Right Through Me

Look Right Through Me

Audience responses:

"I wanted to leave, it was so violent and repetitive." 

"Some dialogue would have been good, I was hoping it would get better."

"It had some lyrical moments."

Look Right Through Me is a collaboration between Michael Leunig and Kage dance company. 

The set is a huge post apocalyptic junk yard wafting with smoke. A small child in a brown polyester suit walks out with a sign and hangs it on the back fence that says "Dreams will be towed away" and this sets up the rest of the performance. 

I'm not a fan of Michael Leunig so I feel this was lost on me. The paused snapshots and selection of imagery used,  I'm guessing, are throwbacks to Leunig's work but I just found them blunt, unsubtle and not as whimsical as I feel I was supposed to. 

I found the gender roles of the performmers forced and a little insulting. At one point the sole female dancer has a search light between her legs and the male dancer is drawn hypnotically to it. This is indicative of the whole play. 

There is full frontal male nudity, a man in red lycra tights and high heels booty dancing, a child constantly circling on a tricycle, a clown, and howling at the moon from a tree; a ukelele also makes an appearance. 

The dancers themselves were lovely to watch, particularly the female lead whose solo was lovely but the context as to why she was dancing was unclear. 

I admire the Malthouse for the work they do, especially developing new Australian pieces. Look Right Through Me was just too blunt and experimental for me to take seriously as nothing was left to the audience's imagination.