All That Glitters...

The Gilding Room features an original score and fairly demanding choreography performed alone by Stephanie Ritch, whom you may have seen last chewing a cheroot as Virginia Woolf in the basement at Arches Live. The subject matter is traditional, how all that glitters is not gold, how beneath the sex and glamour of a media saturated modern existence is a rotten emptiness full of cruelty and despair. The score is pop and dance subverted by glitches, loops and static. But as they develop the themes a strong piece emerges.

A black inflatable pilates ball morphs from ball, to lover, to a globe crushing Ritch implying Atlas or Sisyphus, only to deflate under her weight as she sits with us staring at a glowing television, unable to look away until the screen literally burns, melts, and she climbs inside to drench herself in liquid gold. It's good work and Playathome certainly make an impression. Even if it's just by permanently damaging your retinas.