Alice, Will and Caroline have died. In Hell, they must take a long hard introspective look at themselves.

Fed up with the Byzantine conflicts of their collaboration, these dance artists thought a pivot to modernist theatre might help them walk away from the troubles in their lives. They were wrong, and now they are stuck in a moment and they can’t get out of it.

Hell is a play acted by dancers with you in the audience.

Doors Shut was a dance-play integrating verbatim theatre, excerpts from Jean Paul Satre’s No Exit and dance interludes to three different versions of Murder on the Dancefloor. Performed in the proscenium at Temperance Hall, previously home to Melbourne’s Anthill Theatre company, it played on the tight-knit collaboration and the interplay of the three inhabitants of Hell to render a complex and unflattering portrait, viewed from the outside-in.

People

Choreography, Direction and Performance: Alice Dixon, William McBride, Caroline Meaden and Mark Wilson

Lighting Design: Alice Will Caroline with Mark Wilson, Alex Nguyen, Natalia Velasco and Sherwyn Spencer

Costume Design: Alice Will Caroline with Mark Wilson

Presented by Temperance Hall for Melbourne Fringe

Awards: Green Room Award for Best Ensemble Performance (Dance), Melbourne Fringe Trades Hall Residency Award

Supported by the Ian Potter Museum and Temperance Hall

Images by Gregory Lorenzutti and Takeshi Kondo