How does an entire ethnicity deal with the damage of a colonial era that only ‘officially’ ended in the latter half of the 20th century? How can a culture connect through the intensity of a worldwide diaspora? WHITESNAKE3000 takes a look at all of this, measuring the personal stories of identity against the epicness of Chinese mythology.
WHITESNAKE3000, presented through Co3’s IN.HOUSE program, shines a light on the creative’s personal experience with dance, colonialism, culture, and queerness. We wrap this all around our solo performer, Zendra Giraudo, as they explore all aspects of their identity, how they relate, and how they blow each other apart. Zendra jumps between relaying anecdotes about their life to then entwining that into the story of the White Snake, a chinese myth about snakes, love, and a meddling turtle monk. The piece uses the themes of the myth to explore what it means to be Chinese or queer or an artist in a ‘post’-colonial age.
Co3 WHITESNAKE3000. Photography by Chris Symes.
Sometimes the analogy between White Snake and Zendra became a bit unclear or underdeveloped, while still delivering some of my favourite scenes – especially the duel, the journey from myth to dance and queerness, while possibly intentional, for me it mixed some of the important message about identity in the post-colonial world.
This was brought around though with a great final monologue which reminded us, though of course hard to forget in a show about colonialism and identity, about the current genocide taking place. While we never actually heard the name Gaza or Palestine we reflect on how colonialism still massively affects billions of people. Was also great to see a few keffiyehs in the audience.
Co3 WHITESNAKE3000. Photography by Chris Symes.
Zendra is a powerhouse, jumping between intense emotional peaks and troughs, duelling cowboys to guttural screams; a fantastic dancer who is gorgeously emotive and a spectacle to watch. Even when she dives into the anecdotal, she stands in front of a retro microphone and is just refreshingly herself, she is still captivating but there’s a soft pedestrian aspect to her delivery which breaks up the fantastical grandness of the sections in between. Joe Lui as director brings out the best of the performance and while minimal, we have constant glimpses into the thought processes of the creatives which helps move us from the epics of myth into the space at the State Theatre Centre.
WHITESNAKE3000 gives us a grounded exploration of identity while maintaining a grand sense of scale and destructiveness colonialism has caused and continues to perpetuate.
WHITESNAKE3000 is playing in the Rehearsal Room 1 space at State Theatre Centre until Saturday 23/03, including a matinee performance at 2pm on Saturday.