Laurie Anderson - Homeland May 4, 2008
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Reviews , trackbackLaurie Anderson’s Homeland, which had its final London performance at the Barbican last night, was a far cry from the last time I saw her, when her multimedia presentation of Big Science came to Wellington in 1986. Big Science, and Mister Heartbreak, are albums I’ve always enjoyed, so although I’ve not heard anything new from her in a long time, I was keen to see the show. Sadly, I find myself ambivalent.
The setting was minimalist, with Anderson and three backing musicians on a stage surrounded by tea-lights and coloured lighting the only concession to visual interest. The spoken word predominates, and the music itself treads, and sometimes crosses, the fine line between subtlety and monotony. The use of a vocoder to deepen her natural speaking voice for much of the performance just seems odd now, rather than innovative as it did at the time of Big Science.
As with her earlier work, this performance is her commentary on the state of modern America with a light-weight, metropolitan cynicism. It started well, with a reworking of Aristophanes ‘The Birds’, and soon moving on to the standout piece of the evening ‘Only an Expert Can Deal With the Problem’, a catchy and wry take on ‘expert’ culture and how it defines what can, and cannot, be considered an issue in public discourse.
No doubt aficionados will berate me for philistinism, but I expected more. It’s interesting rather than absorbing, more performance poetry for a cafe than a show for a large concert hall.
Comments»
Not a Laurie Anderson fan, only knowing O’Superman but I saw the performance and it was totally mesmerizing, funny, political and I was very impressed. And unlike your review it was perfectly suited to a large concert hall.