A fringe festival favourite, Daniel Nodder, has brought his minimalist physical comedy show Only Bones – Daniel Nodder to Auckland’s Basement Theatre.
Seasoned Te Whanganui-a-Tara practitioner Nodder is the tenth solo performer to take on the Only Bones project, an invitation laid out by theatremaker Thom Monckton asking artists to produce creative work within set guidelines: only one light, no narrative, no set, no props, no text, within a limited amount of space.
In Nodder’s version, goofiness and laughs abound, with the opening night audience in stitches for most of the hour run-time. While the staging is indeed restrictive, with Nodder remaining fixed centre stage for the entirety, Nodder’s use of his body is anything but. He uses every inch of his physicality: his white t-shirt becomes a thriving monster, his knees, a duet of patellae. Adept at isolating body parts and creating nonverbal sounds that strike a chord, we often forget we are watching a man with four limbs and not an amorphous jellied creature from the deep.
For such stripped-back minimalist theatre, each element must earn its place. The swelling soundscape most definitely achieves this, with Ben Kelly’s expansive composition grounding Nodder’s physical narratives within wider emotional arcs and further imbuing the small theatre with humming, electrified energy.
Lighting, too, is, quite literally, central, with the lightbulb hanging from a wire at centre stage. At times, this allows Nodder to swing the LED globe around the limited staging circle, illuminating spaces and shapes in relation to the body and the empty space. Through clever choices, lighting designer Rebekah de Roo performs gradual shifts through power and colour, transforming the audience from theatregoers to spellbound moths, captivated by a singular radiating source.
Only Bones is a joyous exploration of the body in space. While the gags had the audience laughing, in my opinion, some of its most powerful moments came between the jokes, and it perhaps could have benefitted from lingering a little longer on moments of stillness and trusting the audience even more to hold vulnerable space between the play. Regardless, it’s always captivating to watch a performer test the traditional boundaries of performance, and in doing so testify a commitment to their craft. In a world in desperate need of creative thinking, Nodder’s Only Bones is something bold, fresh, and entirely new.
Featured photos by Maeve O’Connell (main, final) and Aimée Sullivan (middle).
