Echoes of the Underworld, from choreographer Emily Cheung, poet Diana Tso and the Little Pear Garden Dance Company, transforms Campbell House into the Underworld where souls (i.e. us) are guided in small groups through different rooms of Campbell House for a very “in your face” encounter with ghosts, demons and other restless spirits.

The audience is divided into three colour coded “fates”. Everyone starts and finishes in the same place for the opening and closing scenes but each “fate” experiences a set of three different performances in between. The rooms in Campbell House are not exactly acoustically sealed so sounds from elsewhere in the house bleed through into your experience.

There is a basic aesthetic running through the show. Sets, decor and costumes (Cindy Chang) are Chinese inspired with a nod to Peking opera (Little Pear Garden’s roots). The dance style is more rooted in contemporary modern with martial arts elements and varies from extremely graceful to violently acrobatic. The music/sound stage is pretty much what I’d expect from Alice Ho. Vania’s singing aside it’s pre-recorded for each piece and skilfully combines Chinese and Western instruments and techniques with electronics to create a distinct sound world for each dance piece. They’ve got Campbell House wired up to make this genuinely immersive.

I chose fate red (because Alice Ho recommended it!). Starting up stairs all three fates got introduced to the concept in elliptical and apocalyptic terms by Vania Chan, playing the Queen of the Underworld (and of course singing). Then, for us reds, it was off to Nine Tailed Fox (Forest); a vigorous exploration of a Chinese myth about a hunter’s encounter with spirit animals. After two male foxes encounter the hunter and fight him energetically leading to his leaving wounded, there’s a more lyrical but quite energetic section for male and female fox with some really nice moves especially by Caitlin Meyer.

Moving around the house was managed very effectively so we were quickly shifted into another room for Phantom Rose. Two dancers in tight skin tone costumes (Yui Ugai and Derek Souvannavong) do complicated things with a shiny red cloth that covers the whole performance space. They dance on it. They gather it in. They get the audience to turn into into a kind of red sea which they dance underneath and emerge from. It’s all rather weird but graceful and rather beautiful

Doll was much the creepiest of the three pieces. Prompted by Vania, Caitlin Meyer does strange things with to rather sinister dolls; one with a flashing LED eye. The initially favoured doll is stabbed and dismembered (second time this year I’ve had soft toy innards thrown at me) in favour of the creepy LED version while Vania hints at horrors elsewhere in the house.

In the final scene the whole cast plays demons rebelling against their queen who subverts their attempts to break free of her power. It’s brilliantly lit (Billy Wong) and very energetic. It’s actually quite disturbing to have two large guys apparently fighting to the death about a foot in front of you! Eventually, of course, the queen prevails and the demons continue to live out their allotted stories for eternity.

It all works! The individual scenes are well done and the whole thing fits together. The sound world is effective and immersive and the dancers are really good. I caught it rather late in the run but there are further performances today (Saturday) and tomorrow.

I’ll add proper production photos when/if I get them