December 15, 2008
Physical theatre is not everyone's cup of tea, but for those who are inclined towards contemporary dramatics, Approaching Tomorrow was a high quality, unflinching and grown up offering.
The performance was a work-in-progress, showcasing the dramatic tools available to physical theatre and exploring the ways it can be used to bring out narrative and emotion. However, being unfinished, the night's offerings were decidedly hit-and-miss, and the medium worked to lesser and greater degrees across the different pieces.
The smaller isolated pieces struggled to maintain the raw emotional engagement that is the point of physical theatre. The problem was that there simply was not enough narrative to tie any emotions to. I found that without something to feel emotional towards the dramatic tools simply had nothing to work on.
Luckily, this criticism in no way applied to the evening's main piece, Lullaby, which certainly had the strong narrative needed. Here, the medium worked very, very well. My uncultured friend and I were both terribly impressed despite definite initial cynicism.
The story, about a broken childhood and tortured life, was presented in a powerful and gritty way with scant dialogue, few props and lots of energy. Barbara Baer's twisted stances and strained expressions brought a harrowing tale to life, and made the affair shockingly personal. By the end of the crescendo I found myself on the edge of my seat, with my mouth hanging weakly open.
But Approaching Tomorrow's style will not be to everyone's taste, as it was often difficult to know how to read the pieces. For example, Joelle Perret performed a very strange piece about an aspiring star which I simply did not know how to react to. The character, Lisa, seemed to be both comic and tragic simultaneously, and I never quite knew if I wanted to worry for her or laugh at her. This uncertainty was a strange emotion indeed to have inspired in me.
All that said, I had a very good evening. Already the performance was enough to leave me with that theatre glow, and show was only a preview for what will be on offer in the future. Hopefully we will be able to sample the finished product in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in July, so if you want to see what contemporary physical theatre can do, I suggest you check them out. You never know, you may even lose some of that cynicism along the way.
The performance was a work-in-progress, showcasing the dramatic tools available to physical theatre and exploring the ways it can be used to bring out narrative and emotion. However, being unfinished, the night's offerings were decidedly hit-and-miss, and the medium worked to lesser and greater degrees across the different pieces.
The smaller isolated pieces struggled to maintain the raw emotional engagement that is the point of physical theatre. The problem was that there simply was not enough narrative to tie any emotions to. I found that without something to feel emotional towards the dramatic tools simply had nothing to work on.
Luckily, this criticism in no way applied to the evening's main piece, Lullaby, which certainly had the strong narrative needed. Here, the medium worked very, very well. My uncultured friend and I were both terribly impressed despite definite initial cynicism.
The story, about a broken childhood and tortured life, was presented in a powerful and gritty way with scant dialogue, few props and lots of energy. Barbara Baer's twisted stances and strained expressions brought a harrowing tale to life, and made the affair shockingly personal. By the end of the crescendo I found myself on the edge of my seat, with my mouth hanging weakly open.
But Approaching Tomorrow's style will not be to everyone's taste, as it was often difficult to know how to read the pieces. For example, Joelle Perret performed a very strange piece about an aspiring star which I simply did not know how to react to. The character, Lisa, seemed to be both comic and tragic simultaneously, and I never quite knew if I wanted to worry for her or laugh at her. This uncertainty was a strange emotion indeed to have inspired in me.
All that said, I had a very good evening. Already the performance was enough to leave me with that theatre glow, and show was only a preview for what will be on offer in the future. Hopefully we will be able to sample the finished product in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in July, so if you want to see what contemporary physical theatre can do, I suggest you check them out. You never know, you may even lose some of that cynicism along the way.