V-TOL DANCE COMPANY
'WITHOUT TRACE'

Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham
Saturday 11th March 2000

Without Trace is a visual feast and its energy runs high.
Director and film-maker Mark Murphy works with dancers, actors, a script-writer, musicians and designers of stage set and lighting to unpack a distinct and heart-felt narrative through varied media. Combining long-term collaborators and newer blood such as Anne Gilpin, Murphy has brought together a solid team to jointly devise this latest work for his renowned contemporary dance-rooted company. The work as a whole shows that each contributor to this group effort can communicate ably in his or her chosen medium.

And communication is central to Without Trace.
It is important both thematically in the content of the piece, and practically, being clearly central to the intention and realisation of the work.

Taking the cold statistic that "250,000 people go missing every year in the UK" as a starting point, Without Trace presents a heated response. The work considers the motivation to walk out of one's life, and the expectations and incomprehension of those left behind.
The frustrations and pains felt by people learning that they have been communicating on different planes is part of this… learning about someone by their absence, unlearning your definition as part of a relationship, exploring one's emotions whilst numb.

As a theatre piece Without Trace seeks to communicate an emotive narrative and to explore some of the raw feelings brought into focus through the stories that unfold. Whilst the dancers are passionate and intent, the piece relies as much on filmed sequences, verbal narration/word play and live music to meet its aim of communicating to a general audience. The work does not give precedence to any one component of its mixed media.

This is the strength of Without Trace: the moments when the elements truly meld together.
Moments when Graham Cunnington's compositions swell out from the on-stage musicians, to meet the physical layers of live action being enacted on different levels, overlaid with translucent screens onto which filmed excerpts are projected, as other projections and Stephen Munn's lighting draws the whole complex picture together.

Overall, this work has a tangible sense of genuine collaboration. Without that, something very valuable would indeed be missing.