Production Xx (FR)
GUSH IS GREAT

A sustained state of suspense in which all is still possible? Or final moments being savoured while gradually heading for an unavoidable abyss? There’s something cinematic about the slow motion in which the members of the French group Production Xx approach the audience. Not only because the performers’ pseudo-epic orchestration evokes Hollywood’s “larger-than-life” ethos, but also because of the range of characters embodied via the absurd props appearing one by one – a bouquet of roses, a water gun, a mechanical dog – before being discarded. Despite the grotesque scene, the five remain stone-faced and deadly serious, as if a deeper, immutable despair underlay their continual attempts at metamorphosis.