Delicate and Beautiful: Needcompany's Porcelain Project

I saw Needcompany’s Isabella’s Room two years ago. They had the best part of an anthropological museum on stage and unfolded a story that spanned the twentieth century, post-colonialism, the joys and pains of aging, mortality and parenthood, wrapped in a compassionate humanism with a catchy theme tune. In turn, new production The Porcelain Project is quirky and achingly moving, using experimentation as an expressway to the audience’s hearts and minds.

Needcompany have a special relationship with Tramway. Grace Ellen Barkey, choreographer and co-founder, suggests that “as a place where visual art, performances and workshops take place, Tramway has an energy that is close to the energy of Needcompany.” Their work captures the qualities associated with the Southside space - it challenges boundaries, blurs genre and uses multiple media. This radicalism is their foundation.

Barkey continues, “Our dream was to create a space where artists can meet and work together or separately in performances and visual art. Art has to redefine itself always: by offering time and opportunity we create freedom for the artists.”

This Project’s genesis is idiosyncratic. “It started with a porcelain installation by Lemm & Barkey. A sort of puppet theatre with porcelain objects on strings. We pulled the strings and the porcelain became alive.” From gallery exhibitions, “we enlarged and it became a world on his own.”

Barkey has resisted the wretched realism that passes for energy in many modern productions, realising a utopian vision that hopes to inspire the audience.

The Porcelain Project will entertain and provoke, be idealistic and break hearts. With Victoria, C de la B and the whole Frans Brood stable, Belgian theatre has claimed the aesthetic high-ground for twenty years, infusing the stage with warmth and vibrant spirituality. In an isolating world lurching towards relentless individualism, you need Needcompany.