MDLSX is a show charged with joyous energy. Motus performer Silvia Calderoni - pale, thin, and fierce - whirls and cavorts across a golden, glittering triangle, telling a story that is partly her own and partly Jeffrey Eugenides' from his 2003 novel Middlesex. It is a story of gender, androgyny, and a girl who is also a boy who is something else again, outside society's narrow comprehension.
Calderoni's performance is mesmerising, filling the vast space of Carriageworks' Bay 20 with bouncing, restless motion and a tumbling narrative in Italian set to a soundtrack that includes The Smiths, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend. MDLSX is an exploration of bodies and the shape of things as Calderoni wiggles her leggings down to her ankles, tucks and shifts her genitals, and kneads her face before a camera.
At the heart of the chaotic, pounding story is society's need to resolve the question of her gender. Boy or girl? This conflict plagues both her and the protagonist of Eugenides' novel, leading to rejection, loss, but also a strong sense of identity and self.
And through it all, Calderoni keeps dancing and moving and smiling, maintaining her momentum as all around things seek to grab a hold. MDLSX is raw but honest, quiet yet full of song, a liquid exploration of whether one can defy classification and simply be.
