Arts Review
Per Te - Brisbane Festival
Whether it’s to dazzle, entertain or tell a story usually physical theatre and circus performances are known for putting on a show. This art form connects and appeals to audiences, delivering spectacle with breath-taking moments, where one can only sit back and watch in awe. Through passion and movement - it’s easy to tell a story, because we feel and believe in what we see. However, if you’re up for more of a dialogue-centric performance that is light-hearted and features a bit of cheeky clowning, with juggling acts and a sprinkle of acrobatic wonder, this is the right show for you.
Those of you witty audience members with an alert and eager mindset, hungry for a more traditional form of storytelling, will enjoy this French production. The characters narrate the story to the audience and set up a world that is all behind the scenes, as the crew are in fact preparing for a show that will be performed in three months time. We watch as they rehearse for the show, and the show plays to it’s strengths when a man and woman entangle themselves in the air, balancing and leaning on one another as their wrist wraps around a strap, suspending them in the air.
However, we don’t see a whole lot more of this dramatic movement throughout the piece, as the dialogue sets the pace, and not the movement. The performers, at one stage, utilise a park bench as a prop to dance on, much like an artist utilises a canvas, creating something out of the ordinary, and providing a release for creative expression. Whilst there were impressive moments, the pulsating and rhythmic feeling of a typical circus act was absent.
The majority of the production features a large amount of dialogue, in which those that prefer to watch and not think might be a bit surprised. As someone that thoroughly enjoyed these artistic performers glide and entangle themselves in the air, be it with a hoop or a bench, it was saddening to realise that this art form did not make up the majority of the show.
The context of the story being one that features the performers rehearsing for a show three months away, we never see the show that they had been planning for but instead watch it develop. The production ultimately chooses to paint their performance through words, leaving their bodies as decorative objects instead of utilising them to speak volumes, without having to utter a single word.
Joanna Letic