Fields (Extract)
★★★☆☆ Understated
Assembly @ Dance Base (Venue 22): Tue 5 – Sun 24 Aug 2024
Review by Suzanne O’Brien
Fields (Extract), presented by the In the Fields Project at Dance Base is an understated and stripped-back piece that quietly explores natural movement and stone forms.
Upon entering, the performance is already underway. Two performers, Merav Israel and Claire Pençak, take turns shaping and repositioning stones into spirals, mounds and lines. It’s almost like a slow, deliberate game of chess between them.
Fields(Extract). Pic: In The Fields Project.
The piece unfolds in segments, with half of the performance focused on these evolving stone configurations that set the stage for each dance section. A small nod between the pair signals each transition, marking quiet but deliberate shifts in pace and tone.
Israel and Pençak are both engaging performers, with every movement feeling controlled and deliberate, yet there is always a lightness to the way they move. In one particularly compelling episode, they never let go of one another – pushing, pulling, guiding, and redistributing weight in a way that is thoroughly engaging to watch.
Visually, there are moments of quiet beauty with images that evoke agricultural labour, physical barriers, crossings, divides, and exhaustion. At some points, the performers lie down to rest their heads and bodies on pillows of stone.
a bold, exposing choice
Much of the performance unfolds in silence. The only sounds are the stones scraping, clinking, and shifting across the floor. It’s a bold, exposing choice that draws attention to every movement, though it also demands a sustained level of focus from the audience. When a recorded sound score does appear, featuring soft, metallic percussion, it remains minimal and unobtrusive.
The performers’ relationship and the storytelling remain ambiguous throughout. What exactly each part represents is not always clear and although it invites interpretation, it may also leave some of the audience wanting more emotional or thematic clarity.
Fields(Extract). Pic: In The Fields Project.
There’s a strong sense that no two performances will be quite the same. The specific shapes they create may repeat, but the vast number of stones and combinations gives the work an organic, improvised quality. The choreography feels like it has come from a series of open explorations: how can we move with stones in interesting ways? How many shapes can we create? The piece seems to gather all those discoveries and place them in sequence.
Though the performers move with grace and handle the stones with a beautiful quality, by the end the concept feels stretched thin, with nearly every configuration and interaction explored, leaving the piece somewhat repetitive and less impactful.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Dance Base (DB3), 14-16 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU (Venue 22a).
Tuesday 5 – Sunday 24 August 2025.
Tue/Wed 5/6 & 12/13; Thur 21 – Sun 24 Aug: 5.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*
In The Fields Project website: https://inthefieldsproject.com
Facebook: @Fields-Extract
Instagram: @fields_extract
*affiliate link.
ENDS
