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| About five minutes into Murmurs |
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| The main character in her dream world / FIC41photos, Christa Cowrie |
Even though I was wearing a red plastic poncho when I set out at seven, I arrived at Murmurs soaked to the knees, but Victoria and Aurelia Thierry's imaginative production was worth being caught in a downpour. This French production draws on evolving European circus traditions: physical theater, rapid changing of sets, exquisite timing, simple props, gymnastics, dance, the element of surprise, all coming together in this work born of psychological understanding combined with intelligence. No words, occasional music.
And all performed by one actress+one dancer+one gymnast, with an occasional supporting cast of several men dressed in gray and probably an equal number of technical helpers backstage.
Murmurs starts with the actress, surrounded by boxes, putting things in, taking them out in a haphazard way. Then comes the scene with the monster (made of greatly enlarged gauzy scraps from one of the boxes?). From then on, we see the humans backed by flimsy sets that have a reality naturalistic ones would not convey.
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| Better prepared than I was |
Scary, funny, engrossing. As an articulate friend of mine was reduced to saying "Amazing!"
I agree. By the way, Victoria Thierry is Charlie Chaplin's daughter.
