Language is a net we drag through the icy sea of reality. The small escapes this net; the subtle, the nuanced, they all slip through. And the large, the grand, the sublime, they rip through. The net of language only captures the mediocre. And that it kills.
DEMO, created and performed by Melody Rachel, is a fascinating piece that playfully invites us to consider the limitations of language and the dangers of simplistic labelling.
It’s done without words, or at least the spoken word. The performance begins with a captivating movement piece that powerfully expresses a desire to break free. Then, through single words or phrases written on foam board signs, we’re offered a series of alternatives – apples or oranges, Coke or Pepsi, Labor or the other lot – but Rachel’s movement suggests the absurd reductionism inherent in privileging such narrow choices. And then the signs become more mischievous – feminism or men, progressive or progress – teasing out the limitations of an outlook that insists on binary opposition and excludes life-giving complexity. There’s non-compulsory audience involvement, and the gang gleefully joined in this subversion of stifling simplicity. (If WB Yeats had been present – he wasn’t – he might have offered the Dancer or the Dance.)
At one moment, Rachel’s written signs suggest she is both a church going Christian and a lesbian. It’s a suitable grounding of an abstract debate. It gently reminds us that the genuine will resist the categories we impose. The real thing will escape the net, and live.
This is a warm-hearted, intelligent show, beautifully performed.
Paul Gilchrist
DEMO by Melody Rachel
at The Emerging Artist Sharehouse, Erskineville, as part of the Sydney Fringe
until September 23
Theatre Red 
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