Muscle Mouth (Ross McCormack, Melanie Hamilton, Natasha James, Jason Wright) prove yet again their ability to weave exquisite and visceral design elements together to appeal to the unspoken human nature with As It Stands at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. Told in three image-rich parts: the offering, the echo, and an exchange, As It Stands responds to the sculptural world defined by the set (Ross McCormack) and lighting design (Natasha James): large box structures, a jagged and robust rock, an unconventional timepiece, sharp boxes of light that journey, and unfixed walls.

The performers melt in and out of solos, duets, and groups as they explore their surroundings, each performer bringing a unique approach to interaction with the world ranging from cautious to whimsical, bold, and inquisitive. The choreography is silky, limbs flying and sliding seamlessly, a sense of liquidity breathes across the work. Phrases of group unison, overscored by rumbling bass, are enthralling. Patterns work in symmetry, limbs are borrowed and rearranged within the group, and new, changing human structures emerge. The artistic calibre of this cast (James Vu Anh Pham, Lauren Langlois, Luke Hanna, Emily Adams, Jeremy Beck, Tiana Lung, Christina Guieb, Toa Paranihi) is exciting. They are a delight to watch, controlled and expressive, holding the energy and quality of movement for the full duration of the work. Jason Wright’s composition is confronting, scaling between shrill edges and a haunting tickle to over-stimulating bass that electrifies the movement and lends the set an imposing sense of authority.

As the performers interact with the world onstage, I find myself working to understand the rules of this world – the physics of gravity, of heaviness- trying to ascertain where people fit in this place. Each time I feel I make progress in this task, the world shifts, objects are lifted, walls move, lights snap, and I’m back at square one. The world is reshaped and its limits redefined. This is frustrating for me, but not in an unpleasant way. I find my own curiosity about the space mirrored in the responses of the performers to their physical surroundings. Moments of change leave me unable to fully understand this world, but ideas glimmer through evocative illusion and magic. By the end of the work, I leave feeling a lack of stability, feeling unknown, small, but also with a sense of wonder and appreciation that this unknowable, sometimes turbulent, world has made richer.

In the programme notes, Ross McCormack alludes to a sense of turmoil within the industrial work of Richard Serra, from whom the concept and set design are influenced by.  Turmoil and wonder seem appropriate words to summarise the navigation within this work. Told through the complementary execution of crisp, considered artforms, Muscle Mouth has designed a refined, sensory, and contemporary experience. As It Stands isn’t always an easy watch, but at the end of the evening I find it an ultimately satisfying one.

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