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Street One became unrecognisable as innovative dance performance The House That Jack Built blew through the town on 7-9 October. The audience was ushered in through the back entrance by beefy security, and entering the theatre was a shock to the senses, with pounding house beats from DJs Lanny K and Miss Yetti, club-esque lighting, massive screens edited together by Menofthehour Productions, and the cast already moving about the stage and seats, immersed in an infectious party vibe. It soon became clear that Jack’s House was the place to be, and that this night would be unlike any other.

The show started with a group of friends pumped for a night out in the club, and reflected the highs and lows of their evening, covering every aspect of modern clubbing culture with no holds barred- drugs, sex, alcohol, house music and movement. The titular character Jack (French performer Adnane Nemri) would sometimes appear on the screens as well as onstage with voice overs, to bring the different sequences together and send the messages home ‘they all love, love, love till tomorrow, till they wake up and can’t remember half the numbers in their phone’. These short moments were the only dialogue in the show, with everything else represented through movement or the text messages on screen from one character to another, although these were somewhat fleeting and easy to miss with all the action going on onstage.

Dressed to the nines in neon and party gear, the cast captivated the crowd through dance, gymnastics, acrobatics and aerial routines, as well as constantly dancing through the seats and incorporating the audience, with everything from demanding a foot massage to offering – œdrugs’ (which the program advised us were perfectly safe and harmless to accept). One character, Mary, ( Alison McGregor) even got turfed out by security to make it clear that not all nights end happily, as Jack summarised – œ what goes up, must come down ’

The concept and script came from the brainchild of local Canberran Janine Ayres, of Janine Ayes Aerial Dance (JAAD). Aerial dance is an emerging new style, which gives utter freedom in choreography as it involves not only the horizontal dimension, but up and down the vertical as well. This freedom was at the core of Jack’s House. The aerial sequences, involving red silk ribbons, harnesses, and hula hoops suspended from the ceiling, were spectacular, and showcased the abilities of the performers, and how they utilised their bodies in new and exciting ways.

At the end of the show, the exhausted dancers were escorted out of the venue one by one in shopping trolleys pushed by the crew, and handed massive cans of energy drinks on their way, till only Jack was left onstage. The finale had the back of the stage roll up like a garage door and the entire cast reappear and join together in a colourful curtin call. After the performance, the audience were invited to a real live house party on the stage, with the DJ’s spinning tunes till midnight, and the crowd mixed in with the cast, dancing the night away.

All in all, looking back on The House That Jack Built is like trying to remember the night before when you had a few-it’s all a loud, colourful blur- but you just know it was good.

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