Friday 4th November 2022 was the date of the performance of Hold Tight by the Vincent Dance Theatre company at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre on Hope Place. Where to start with this one, I am still I guess processing.. Let’s take a look at the original billing that make me book tickets for this show back in July of 2022…

Home is where our story begins. It’s not always a place – it’s a condition, a feeling, a sense of connection. It forms who we are and how we move through the world. Hold Tight explores the impact of separation on family relationships and how abrupt change and adverse childhood experiences impact on young people, their behaviour and their sense of identity, especially children taken into care.

But what was performed to us this evening, felt totally different to the concept that was originally billed. So much so that we wondered if the events of the recent past and the current times we live in, have had a profound impact upon what we actually witnessed in this evening’s showing of Hold Tight. We wondered if things have changed so much in the time between billing and this show taking place, if things had been changed or tweaked significantly… On the programmes produced for tonight’s performance, a Director’s Note was included, it read:

Hold Tight has been made in response to the past three years of isolation and dislocation, a period where global events have weighed heavy on my mind and on this process. I was unsure whether to make this, whether the conditions were right, whether the moment had passed, or might never come. The work is broken, unfinished and fragmented, attempting to piece together something in a hostile environment, conjuring images from rubbish, with our imagination and the children the only pathways out of the darkness and into the light.

Charlotte Vincent

Based upon that, I would say that perhaps things have changed within Hold Tight… Perhaps what was shown was not originally what was intended, but it has been shaped by the current times and world affairs that we find ourselves somehow having to carve a pathway through. I kind of like that there is a possibility that has happened, but on the flipside I am also not so sure. There’s no way of really knowing for sure, so open is the context left in this performance.

I will say that I was surprised and a little disappointed at Unity for allowing latecomers to enter the theatre. They were late first of all, showing a lack of respect to the performers on stage, they were noisy and didn’t turn phones to silent or off as they should be, and they kept talking throughout the performance. There was laughter heard as well. Laughing at the performance of some of the performers. That together with the usual conchophany of coughing and sneezing that seems to be passionate enough to fill any silences during any given performance… Quite how the artists keep their composure is beyond me.

Following the performance, a feedback form was handed to us on the way out of the door.. That Vincent Dance Theatre had asked audience members to fill out before they left. Audience feedback – a nice touch.. However, when looking at the questionnaire, it was a 8-10 page booklet.. Not a quick feedback form. I a fully produced, printing in colour, stapled booklet full of questions to be answered by audience members… That’s a bit much. Audience feedback is fine on a sheet of A4 paper, or delivered in person to a representative standing in the Lobby… If felt almost like a bit of a test on the performance witnessed. Regardless, no pens or pencils were provided nor was any prior notice given.. They were simply handed out upon exit of the theatre.

Hold Tight was heavily inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and featured songs and lullabies sung by Ukrainian Children in a workshop held by VDT in Poland. The set design – to me – suggested a place of learning and study, a classroom or a school perhaps, where lessons take place. The adults were very much in-charge of the children, in control… probably not so much, but they held some kind of power over them for sure. There was dance and physical theatre throughout the performance. Some stunning individual pieces throughout the entire show and larger set-pieces throughout. There was some dark subject matter and VDT are not playing around when they mention that the work is broken / unfinished and fragmented. Set within a hostile environment. We found the performance to be very dark in places. Much more so than the original billing suggested.

But still, a performance that we are unlikely to see again. Something out of the normal, something different, yet retaining the general themes that stemmed from Lockdown and the general two-year delay that has placed upon theatre productions.