Wall of Death - a way of life

Stephen Skyrnka "Stagger in wonder as the Red Shoes dance for you eternally"

There were many dimensions to this complex show at the SECC, Glasgow. Ostensibly, it was a celebration of the Ken Fox Troupe, http://www.wall-of-death.co.uk/, who are almost unique in their motor bike show. This act demands immense courage and balance as well as mechanical skill.

Ken Fox travel all over Europe as well as appearing on TV and in other venues, such as this National Theatre of Scotland production with Stephen Skrynka. Skyrnka is a Glasgow performance artist with an interest in over-looked skills. He worked as a taxi driver in Glasgow, accepting performances from passengers in lieu of payment, and he drove a hearse equipped with tanning bed (inside a coffin) from Glasgow to Paris, exchanging a free tan top-up in exchange for views on the afterlife. In "Wall of Death" he is attempting to become a competent biker for the show.

We as audience moved from one completely black area to another, each vivdly lit by a fairground display and then the gate to the Wall itself, where a barker introduced the Fox family and their story. From there it was a short climb up the steps to the drum and the reeking smell of the bikes revving up - and then the fleeting but brilliantly skilled display itself.

There is so much to say about this evening and I cannot do it justice. I experienced the evening as a preview of mortality and a comment on the fragility of life, perhaps understandably in view of Srkynka's past form. Fairgrounds are ephemeral and escapist. An act such as Wall of Death

has a more primitive appeal as well, an intense closeness to risk that satisfies primitive instincts.