Giant giraffes tangled in a mating ritual are background to a couple’s antagonistic counterbalance dance.

A human race that runs in circles is a metaphor for our more desperate efforts to survive…and a marathon dance of repetition reveals nuances of intimacy that only exist through the stamina of emotional endurance.

Same, same But Different takes its inspiration from our enduring ability to keep on struggling for love…whether from one relationship to another or in one, the same, relationship. Same, same But Different creates lasting imagery of various states of co-dependence, frustration, tenderness and humour, through a dexterous blend of film, dance and theatrical virtuosity.

Within a moving set of frames the action is exposed and edited before the audience’s eyes. Live action interacts with life-sized film imagery evoking the multiplicity of thought within each character…their fleeting desires…their unfulfilled expectations.

Drawing inspiration from as diverse sources as the film “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?”, the Margaret Attwood short story “Happy Endings” and our own personal lives, the work is driven by movement, dance, and physicality.

Same, same But Different defies categorisation with dancers that act, actors that move and film that lives and breathes through the flesh of the performers. Magic realism within live performance.

Same, same But Different (is) a rare success in blending words and movement, music and projected images to comment intimately and incisively on relationships by dovetailing the skills of dancers and actors… Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning

See also: Already Elsewhere