‘Music, poetry, movement’ seem to be the three keywords ruling the intimate Yarraville room that is Kindred Studios on this Friday night. An empty stage with a grand piano is waiting for Danaë Killian to perform along with her art partner Jan Baker-Finch.

The Dove’s Annihilation is a hybrid and conceptual blend of selected Sylvia Plath poetry and mixed media. This research and performance project is a sequel to Killian’s earlier piece ‘Sylvia Plath in the Domestic Sublime’, shown in the 2012 Melbourne Fringe. This time, the author plays with virtuosity some piano compositions of Beethoven, Bach and even Schoenberg to illustrate the notorious Daddy, or the less famous Brasilia, both written one year before the poet’s death. From the beginning, the contradictory and visionary world of Plath is visible up to the pianist’s outfit – a long and purple velvet dress hiding big black Doc Martens.

From the very beginning of the performance it feels like you have no escape – you must confront yourself to the dark and eerie poems recited. The sonic tone is visually represented on the side by choreographer and costume designer Jan Baker-Finch. She accompanies these musical pieces with eurythmy, a concept invented by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900′s which presents the use of a corporal alphabet. To translate the speech act into body movements, Baker-Finch makes smart costuming choices: the audience is hypnotised by her light and silky rainbow dress that moves gracefully upon her arms.

Indubitably, the artists invested interest in interpreting Sylvia Plath’s ‘tragic sense of faith’ through this art venue associating dance, music and poetry. It was as if the poet’s scattered mind was oscillating between post-modernist composers like Messian or classical geniuses as Bach or Beethoven, all of them interpreted with intricate intensity.

The concept of confessional poetry goes along with the atmosphere of the act. Although it is by no means easy to understand, it seems the performance is more about figuring out the poet’s inner thoughts than just appreciating the pure beauty of music.

Indeed, everything screams Plath in this show. By pushing the limits of the spectator and making him discover a new facet of her poetry, it talks mostly to an initiated audience. So beware, if you are not familiar with the artist’s universe, you might miss out. You may even feel too conformist if you like only the Beethoven and Bach pieces, because let’s be honest, Schoenberg is not always easy to listen to. But his play on dissonances goes along perfectly with the discomfort and anxiety Danaë Killian wants to deliver to the public with her low-pitched husky voice. Finally, everything becomes lighter and clearer at the listening of the last piece – Bach’s fugue – as if all the heavy thoughts were disappearing into a few arpeggios.

Click here for more information about the show and to purchase tickets.