Elisabeth Flett
Ivory Cutlery is a 50-minute visual, musical storytelling experience which is inspired by and based around the songs of Scottish artist Ivor Cutler. Born in Govan over a century ago, Cutler spent his life exploring child-like curiosity and whimsical fun. His songs are a mix of glee, wonder, melodrama and pathos, and Waddell brings them to life in this performance through a mix of BSL, movement, props, dance, and renditions of classics such as I Believe in Bugs and Women of the World.
It’s clear right from the start of this piece that Waddell has, in many ways, has created a duo performance. Ivory Cutlery’s onstage interpreter, Amy Cheskin, has a background in British Sign Language Performance Interpreting and over a decade of experience in bringing integrated performance practice to Scottish stages, and the ways she and Waddell switch between BSL and English, share signs between one another and playfully explore the worlds of these songs through movement is a joy to witness. Why Don’t A Woman Love A Woman’s actions in particular are incredibly well woven into the choreography of the piece, Cheskin and Waddell using BSL to act out the song’s storyline to great effect.
Waddell’s facial expressions are ones of open, engaged curiosity throughout as she invites us to engage in a surrealist world of silly fun and imaginative creativity. One moment she’s dancing in a chicken hat; the next the audience are being invited to pet a giant soft toy fly. There are plenty of props to keep us engaged, and occasionally ducking in our seats – there is a row of mini doughnuts tied to a string and swung throughout the audience at one point in the show, and plastic balls thrown in our direction during another – but it is Evie Waddell’s skills as a dancer and singer which keep our full attention, no additional gags needed. Audience participation is also invited at several points during the show, with Waddell and Cheskin’s bilingual version of Women of The World proving truly moving as everyone begins joining in the looping refrain in both BSL and English, the room full of flowing movement and communal song.
Waddell’s choreography is full of assured fluidity and skilful grace – There’s A Hole In My Toe is a particular highlight – and those skills help elevate these short humorous songs into another art form altogether, with elements of clowning and improvisatory dance ensuring Ivory Cutlery is a surrealist triumph.
Ivor Cutler liked to end his songs abruptly, and Waddell takes this habit and integrates it into her own performance of his work. One song ends with the grandly confounding line, “I can see Australia!” Others just clatter to a stop, Waddell mischievously waiting for the audience to realise she really is finished. These sudden ends and brief fragments of melody – Cutler’s songs are very short – generally work well, but with so many back-to-back ‘mini’ songs it would be a welcome development to the show if Waddell explored ways of joining up some of Cutler’s catalogue into a longer piece, the audience then able to settle into this work a little more rather than feeling the same ‘stop/start’ energy throughout.
That aside, this is a successfully anarchic, fun and truly unusual show, and it showcases the many creative possibilities of bilingual theatre. I can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Recommended Drink: Something brightly coloured, fizzy, and delightfully nonsensical.
Performances of Evie Waddell: Ivory Cutlery have now concluded at Edinburgh Deaf Festival.
Image Credit: Colin Hattersley Photography
Lamesha Ruddock
Jake Mace
