Chris Parker in his one-person show, No More Dancing. Photo / Supplied
Comic mix of stage and home movies sad at heart, writes Dionne Christian
Chris Parker achieves a fine balance between poignancy and humour in his autobiographical tale about a boy's passion for dance and his journey of self-discovery.
There are faint echoes of Billy Elliot, but the grim realism of a North England mining town is replaced by a solidly liberal home in
suburban Christchurch.
It is in the dancing that the story really comes to life, as gawky, painfully earnest movements slowly evolve into a self-choreographed epic in which humour softens the emotional torment of a boy's struggle to express feelings he cannot comprehend.
The show uses humour to avoid the self-pitying tone that can plague personal identity stories. Through the cathartic properties of laughter, the audience is able to empathise with the intense self-loathing of a boy learning he does not fit anyone's expectations.
