Sonya Tayeh's The Surge is an act of devotion to the late Sinéad O'Connor, performed by 10 women who sway, slide, and surge around pews, leaping and shuddering as songs possess them. The show runs at Aviva Studios, Manchester, until 27 June.
A thrilling tribute to a troubled soul
O'Connor, who died in 2023, once said, 'I'm just a troubled soul who needs to scream into a mic now and then.' Troubles and screams both sing out in this ode by American choreographer Sonya Tayeh. The dancers, many from New York's indie dance scene, are mature performers with a combined age over 500, compact with talent and experience. Their gazes often rake over the audience, as if dancing the story of their lives.
Music and movement intertwine
The singer's grainy, poetic voiceover from her memoir snakes through the show. 'Songs are ghosts,' she says. Her music inflects the evening like a haunting, with guitars thrashing and squalling through songs of striving, fury, and misbegotten romance. Tayeh, best known for choreographing Moulin Rouge!, delivers inventive and frequently thrilling movement, especially in unison, though the middle section becomes a series of mournful vignettes.
Striking moments and design
Standout moments include Karine Plantadit's solo to Tiny Grief Song, Lisa Race's resilient slide down tilted benches, and the ensemble rocking out to Red Football. Tom Visser's superbly textural, low-level lighting washes the stage in copper or sickly green; he also designs the set.
If this is a wake, it's a wild one. The show ends with the dancers' poignant handclasp, a community grieving but exalted. O'Connor's intensely personal songs, informed by her biography and quixotic spiritual calling, spoke to many, and The Surge honors that legacy.
