Three girls and a forklift: a match made in heaven or the latest in contemporary dance?

Theatres Forecourt, Arts Centre Melbourne

February 12, 2014

Featuring three highly-trained female performers and a two-and-a-half tonne forklift, KAGE’s Forklift, directed by Kate Denborough, offers a reflection on the surprising strength and fragility of the human body.

A performer donning a high-visibility vest sets the scene as she prepares for a late-night shift in a warehouse, grabbing snacks from the vending machine and chatting with a friend. She makes her way to a forklift parked just out of view. When she returns, however, unbeknownst to her, she has been joined by two other performers — dressed in flesh-coloured bra and leggings, they emerge from the front and back of the vehicle, where they had been draped, like eerie ragdolls, just out of her sight.

The pair are wheeled around and unloaded between stacks of brown boxes, the most fragile of cargoes. Performing a pas de deux on the elevated arm of the forklift, they roll over each other in a series of intricate handstands, back-bridges, and contortionistic movements. The danger is immediate and real, calling upon the performers’ immense powers of physical intelligence. Like the most...