REVIEW: Anito - Otherworldly

©️ Photography by Sarah Walker

The moment I step into the darkened theatre, I am surrounded by the sounds of night: insects humming, a faint rustle somewhere in the dark. I can’t quite see what is on stage, only sense the scale of it, something large and breathing. It feels as if the theatre itself is asleep and dreaming.

ANITO, performed and co-conceived by Justin Talplacido Shoulder, opens with a short reflection on Australia’s colonial history before dissolving into waves of cicada song, mist and golden light. Then the movement begins. From the shadows, shapes start to grow. Bodies roll into view, half-formed and faceless, wrapping themselves in layers of foamy gold until they rise as two-legged creatures.

Soon, others follow, co-created and performed by Victoria Hunt and Eugene Choi, emerging as hybrid beings on four legs, part human and part animal. They transform into prehistoric spirits that stomp and howl as they devour smaller forms. A giant body swells until it fills the space. Limbs merge, separate and reassemble, as if evolution itself is happening before our eyes. The scene then transforms into a vast mushroom world, where everything feels oversized and slightly unreal. Giant fungi seem to breathe, swaying gently, glowing under the light. A witch-like figure emerges, masked and tall, both commanding and strangely delicate.

To be honest, I can no longer recall which image comes first or last. The timeline dissolves completely in this piece, as if time itself is irrelevant. I find myself drifting, half-awake and half-dreaming, something closer to trance, as if the performance is asking me to let go of ordinary thought. ANITO takes its name from the Tagalog word for ancestor spirits believed to inhabit nature. Shoulder draws on these pre-colonial Filipino beliefs to build a world where myth and material collide, imagining other ways of living and dreaming.

The sound design by Corin Ileto blends natural and electronic textures until it feels as if the forest itself is singing. The lighting, vision and projection design by Fausto Brusamolino are perhaps the most vital parts of this dreamlike world. His work layers movement, shadow and light so fluidly that the stage landscape itself seems to breathe. The costumes by Matthew Stegh, Anthony Aitch and Shoulder himself turn bodies into living sculptures, soft and monumental.

There is something both thrilling and unsettling about ANITO. It feels like a ritual more than a performance, calling up memories and futures that exist beyond language.

★★★ 1/2

For more information, please visit: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/justin-talplacido-shoulder-anito/

Credits

Directed, Performed and Co-conceived by Justin Talplacido Shoulder
Production Designer: Matthew Stegh and Justin Talplacido Shoulder
Costume Designer: Matthew Stegh, Anthony Aitch, Justin Talplacido Shoulder
Music Composition & Sound Designer: Corin Ileto
Performer & Co-Generator: Victoria Hunt
Co-Generator: Eugene Choi
Mentor & Collaborator: Victoria Hunt
Lighting / Vision Designer: Fausto Brusamolino
Costume Design Technicians: Brenda Lam, Anthony Aitch, Luna Aquatica
Produced by Jason Cross at Insite Arts

Special thanks to Marrugeku & Talking Bodies