Ockham’s Razor, Arc

Review in Issue 19-2 | Summer 2007

I love Ockham's Razor in a way that is unnatural and intense and would probably scare them if they only knew. This year they rocked the Mimefest with a trilogy of pieces: Arc, in which the three performers are adrift on a raft represented by a suspended grid of scaffolding, Memento Mori, a duet on a custom metal frame; and Every Action, performed on a rope run through two high-up pulleys. They seem to have an understanding – conscious or not – that the two functions of any piece of aerial equipment (rope especially) are that it saves and it binds, and that the balance and grace of a performance can unfold into this metaphorical dimension. So the reality of a raft at sea is that it saves your life but it is also a prison – which picture here the grid of scaffold bars. The concept is subtlest in Memento Mori, where the two performers – Death and a mortal – act out their sick dependency, Death catching the human and returning her again and again to the metal frame. Every Action twists this slightly. Four strangers explore the possibilities of a rope where the actions of an aerialist on one end will affect the aerialist on the other, basically just having a good time. Ockham's Razor are good performers. They are making (on audience reaction) extremely popular work. They devise brilliantly. Arc is the weakest of the trilogy, needing perhaps more direction to order its ideas and compact its invention, but the trilogy is strong. It lifts you up.

Artforms
Presenting Artists
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Jan 2007

This article in the magazine

Issue 19-2
p. 26