Thick smoke fills the room, creating a state of near-blindness, while gut-rumbling drones rattle an old industrial building to its core, as bodies writhe and convulse. The world premiere of Blackhaine’s And Now I Know What Love Is, an immersive performance blending choreography and sound, promises an “invitation to step outside of reality and into a numb world” and from the off it grabs hold of your senses.
Blackhaine’s Tom Heyes is an experimental musician, rapper and choreographer – he’s worked with big rap names including Playboi Carti – who incorporates drill, drone, donk, and harsh soundscapes into his music, alongside practising the Japanese dance-theatre form butoh. He doesn’t perform himself here, instead creating a piece where there’s no stage, so dancers and audience coexist, roaming freely.
The dancers’ movements are initially totally static, then intensely slow, before some begin to twitch and retch as if they are poisoned and dying. Pummelling sub-bass floods the room and a guitarist on a balcony plays sparse melodic licks: it sounds like the Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly collaborating with drone titans Sunn O))). Then silence falls and there are more convulsions, more retching, before a more aggressive dance begins – one man runs back and forth, contorting as though he’s trying to escape his own body.
The audience follows and swarms around the action, which makes it difficult to see at times. However, for a show void of obvious narrative, but which explores themes of isolation and desolation, there’s a pleasing symbolism in feeling left on the outskirts. The second half intensifies furiously, as an MC lets rip guttural roars that cause bits to fall from the ceiling. He then emerges on top of a shipping container, still screaming, as bright white strobes pulse with disorienting effect.
Dancers shudder and jerk violently on the floor, before the two left standing fall arm-in-arm – finding comfort and connection amid desperation – and everything goes pitch black. It takes a moment to come back around from being plunged into this “numb world” but Heyes does not just deal in anaesthesia – he’s also created something arresting, transfixing, and psychedelically discombobulating.
• Blackhaine: And Now I Know What Love Is is at Diecast, Manchester, until 19 July. Manchester international festival 2025 runs until 20 July
