Reviews of TERRAIN

Nelson Mail 17 October 2005
“A breathtaking performance” by Gail Tresidder 

This is up close and personal theatre in the round and so intimate that there were moments I could hardly breathe. Using a clever modular set, Guy Ryan and Malia Johnston, two Gullivers in Lilliput, create their own little universe out of tiny toys and wooden blocks. Wonderful contemporary dance included awe-inspiring feats of balance, gymnastics, yoga and mime. My companion, herself a skilled performance artist and dancer, praised the quality of their movements and the beautiful contrast of soft flexible human shape and hard inflexible geometric oblongs and squares. Partners in life and art, the firm yet gentle support Guy gave Malia and the tenderness of their dancing brought tears to her eyes. Pictures they wove with their bodies and spirit were sometimes at one with the world; then with a quick twist of movement and sound, the mood was of alienation and vulnerability in an inhuman and monstrous territory. One particularly frightening sequence included the brilliant utilisation of hands as weapons of mass destruction. The choice of an old record player and vinyl, including the crackles, added to the imperfections and uncertainties of the terrain inhabited by these talented dancers. Overall, this performance was a timely reminder of just how fragile the balance of both inner and outer life can be. I have never seen anything quite like it before. There are performances tonight and Tuesday and numbers to each show are limited to 30 for each show. If you can get a seat for this fascinating and enriching experience, you will indeed be fortunate.

NZ Listener 11 December 2004
Excerpt from article titled “Luminous even in the darkness” Francesca Horsley

…Terrain, by Guy Ryan and Malia Johnston, was a highly conceptual work that toyed with place, distance, scale and imagery.  Captivating and beautifully realised, it explored representations of displacement, power and nostalgia – constructed and deconstructed on a small platform of wooded squares, covered with artificial grass. An audience of 30 sat close to the work, creating an intimacy that removed traditional barriers of performer and viewer.  The work was modernistic, with iconic representations from the 1950’s and 1960s: model cars, boats, a bus, toy tank, a simple train set, vinyl records of protest songs and vintage music from the radio request shows.  The vivid green square carried powerful connotations – suburban lawn, pool table, golf course, White house front lawn.  But the dance was not all aloof abstraction.  A duet between Ryan and Johnston was full of dexterous and inventive lifts, turns and balances and was a joy to watch.

The Dominion Post Tue 2 March 2004
Jennifer Shennan

On an even smaller stage in the Adam Art gallery, Guy Ryan and Malia Johnston, from Auckland, presented Terrain, an impeccably proportioned little dance which conveyed themes of huge import. A mobile wood platform is frequently choreographed into the action. Simple props reflect landscape and a bodyscape many times larger than the provided means of transport (toy model cars, bus, train and hand-puppets), creating the impression of a Gulliver-like world with Lilliput and Brobdinang, inhabited simultaneously. The audience is limited to 14, lined in rows along two sides of a square, like a council of citizens observing a microcosm of their city's life and the story of its inhabitants. The dance movement is clean and strong, and miraculously contained, full of risk but without any hint of bravura. Powerful feats of balance are sustained as if in a quest for equilibrium in a human life in a relationship or a society. Away somewhere is a far off dreadful war, hinted at with only a tiny toy gun and a song, but the more evocatively for that. The wonderful fresco by Lorenzetti in 13th century Siena, The Allegory of good government, hovered in my mind as a related image, prompted no doubt by the backdrop to this performance a McCahon canvas with a large AM, and the prophetic words, Teach us to order the days rightly. Terrain is moving to another festival venue. Check your Fringe booklet for details to become one of the elect 14 in the audience for this treasure. It deserves a season in every art gallery, architecture studio and college art department in New Zealand.

Capital Times Wed 10 March 2004
Deirdre Tarrant

TERRAIN stated that its aim was to engage a limited audience in a choreography of the environment. Meticulous and minimalist, this work succeeds and then some. The balancing act between urban and rural, childhood and maturity, reality and aspiration was beautifully translated into movement by Malia Johnston and Guy Ryan, who conceived, choreographed and performed the work. Clever use of childhood building blocks and the relentless continuity of existence were summoned by a toy train constantly circling in its confined space bound by its rails. A toy tank conjured up an entire siege and miniature vehicles were shifted as the bigger landscape changed. Johnston’s gloriously articulated spine reminded us of the potential and beauty of mankind. Terrain was effective and memorable, a gem in a festival.