26/09/26

The Studio at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Company Chordelia’s latest production is Revel, a “60+ coming-of-age story” told through a mesmerising blend of dance and physical theatre. Two dancers (Kally Lloyd-Jones – who also writes and directs – and Steinvör Palsson) have arrived backstage a mere nine hours before their evening show. They’re “middle-class women of a certain age” (™Gregg Wallace) and the bodies they took for granted in their youth now require an awful lot of maintenance. These days, their preparation involves pills, creams, massages, yoga and more; the list is long and it is brutal. “I used to be able to drink,” Palsson laments. “I used to be able to sleep,” counters Lloyd-Jones.

Of course, the duo are professional performers so, even as they’re mourning their former physical prowess, I’m in awe of what they can still do. I’m a decade younger than they are and I like to think I’m in reasonable shape, but these two give the lie to that conceit. Sure, they might not be able to do the splits any more, but they can contort themselves into some highly impressive positions, and the section where Lloyd-Jones dances to Odyssey’s Use It Up and Wear It Out is just magnificent.

Although Revel is specific in its exploration of dancers’ relationships with their ageing bodies, it also has universal appeal. This morning at the gym, for example, mulling over this review, I find myself groaning in wry recognition as I squint at my padlock, trying to read the combination, my carefully-packed reading glasses the other side of the locker door…

I particularly enjoy the clowning sections: Palsson’s lark-like morning energy versus Lloyd-Jones’ slug-a-bed refusal to get up; the frantic, repetitive routines they perform in a bid to outrun time. I also love the elegy to a high-heeled shoe, which is strangely affecting.

Revel is a gentle show, amusing and stirring in equal measure – with an upbeat, almost celebratory ending that means we leave the theatre smiling, happy to be granted the gift of growing old.

4 stars

Susan Singfield