Find Your Eyes – Dublin Theatre Festival – Review

10–12 Oct – O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College

“Choreo-photolist” – The Choreo Photolist is a photographic meditation to the tune of our turbulent times.

This is a new work by British photographer Benji Reid that explores the great loves of his life; hip-hop music, choreography and photography. While there is a text, it is delivered intermittently over the PA systems with a series of previously recorded monologues. The main action on stage is a photo shoot, as Reid creates striking images with his camera.

Benji Reid is a British photographer who was born in Manchester in 1966. His photograph Holding on to Daddy (2016) won the Wellcome Photography Prize in 2020. His work focuses on themes of the ‘Black British experience, Black masculinity and mental health’. In recent times, he has become a ‘pioneer of hip-hop theatre’, a fusion of different art forms, performed live on stage.

There is an unusual stage configuration, with a desk on each side of the stage. One is filled by the DJ for the evening, controlling the sounds and music we hear. The other is filled by a visual editor, controlling the imagery projected onto the two large screens. At the centre of the stage is Benji with his camera. He sets up each shot along with his team of technicians and 3 dancers/ models.

The images vary in style and seem to grow and evolve throughout the evening. They start with quite an introspective style, with intimate and intense close-ups shot in black and white. He slowly starts to introduce colour into the mix and then uses more than one model. By the end of the evening, they have changed into lavish flights of fancy, with the model hanging in the air with grandiose costumes, like gods or superheroes visiting our mundane world.

It would be hard to ignore the number of people walking out of the performance, with a slow but steady stream in the latter part of the show. Whether people were expecting something more traditional or just didn’t like what was being offered, it was a surprisingly high number. It is one of the more exciting elements of the Dublin Theatre Festival that it offers more than traditional theatre, and while they might not always hit the mark, they continue to push the boundary.

At the end of the evening after the applause, Benji talked directly to the audience. He requested that if the audience has taken any photos throughout the evening, they not share them online. He wants each new audience member to experience the evening without prior knowledge of what we’re about to see. It’s a piece that will resonate with those who have an interest in photography, giving an insight into how a photographer goes about their business. In the latter part of the performance, the images become quite ostentatious and exuberant and it’s intriguing to see how such images are created without the use of digital effects.