Created and Performed by Jo Fong and George Orange
We are given raffle tickets by the performers as we enter, with a quiet ‘Good luck’ along with a warm greeting. We are immersed in an instant, transformed into participators of the show we are about to witness. This is The Rest of Our Lives.
The stalls almost surround the stage. There’s a table, two chairs, and a LED screen where we can read different sentences waiting for us. That, and the two protagonists of the story – Jo Fong; a Creative Associate of the Wales Millennium Centre, whose practice focuses on the intention of the creation of community; and George Orange; artist, circus director, performer, facilitator and creative leader who carries hundreds of performances on his back, both in the United Kingdom and internationally.
In this set up that we are welcomed to, Jo talks to us, to the audience, searching for our laughs and responses with softness but commitment. She tries to slowly weave us into what we’re about to see, which is – what exactly?
The Rest of Our Lives is a fun and silly show fuelled by a middle-age crisis. Jo used to be a dancer and George a clown. In this joyful decline, they both search for human connection as they dance, sing and perform, but mostly as they make the audience laugh.
As the performance develops, the LED screen palpitates. In it, the questions that Jo and George won’t dare say out loud are written, from beginning to end, like an introduction to the next chapters of the show. Jo and George wonder how life’s going to be from now on. ‘What’s the point?’, ‘Am I bothered?’, ‘Is there hope?’, ‘Where is this going?’, ‘Am I ready?’ are some of the queries we read. A hopeful insight into adulthood, and the growing old rather than growing up of our bodies through time.
As the show progresses and the space grows more chaotic, the audience is drawn in to find their own meaning of what’s going on, and what the performance is about. Is it that to have fun, sometimes you have to struggle first? Or that the world only has the importance that you want to give it? Or maybe that we’re never alone, we humans, in this chaotic world?
What makes this show outstanding, though, is how the fourth wall is broken at all times. Jo and George warm up the audience slowly by connecting with us in numerous ways. They give us table tennis paddles and gradually throw balls so we are forced to play around them as they dance, they give out an intimate connection date as a raffle’s first prize. Until they end up letting the audience take over the show – that’s once we’re all down on the stage floor, mingling with them, and dancing the night away to Beyonce.
The performances are warm and inviting in this disruptive yet hopeful show. A much-needed breath of fresh air – fun and lots of truth fill The Rest of Our Lives. We can only hope the rest of our lives are filled with that as well.
Featured Image: Jo Fong and George Orange © Sara Teresa
Review by Eva Mateos Rodriguez
Eva is an eclectic artist specialising in acting, writing and song writing. She has been part of several performances, responses and exhibitions, and is now a student of MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck University.
Tickets and information: The Rest of Our Lives | Battersea Arts Centre (bac.org.uk)
BSL interpreted performances: 13 and 15 June. Integrated BSL interpretation by Katie Fenwick.
The Rest of Our Lives was commissioned by the Rural Touring Dance Initiative and has been supported by Groundwork Pro, Fieldwork, Dance House Cardiff, China Plate, Yorkshire Dance, Wales Millennium Centre, Place Theatre, Chapter Arts, Council of Wales, British Council and Wales Arts International.
