Author Archives: Ezra LeBank

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About Ezra LeBank

Ezra LeBank is the Head of Movement and Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach. He is recognized internationally as a specialist in biomechanics, partner acrobatics, contact improvisation and clown. He is the editor of the national periodical for the Association for Theatre Movement Educators ATME News. His book CLOWNS: In Conversation With Modern Masters is available from Routledge Publishing, UK.

Neander - BLAM

Neander: BLAM!

Neander - BLAMBLAM! is set in a mundane office where four employees are as bored with their tedious lives as anyone in their shoes would be. That is where anything usual or tedious about this Danish production, returning to the fringe after a sell-out run in 2013, ends. At first, hints of creativity and playfulness from the workers peep through, in short flashes. They use office supplies to invent action-packed worlds for a few moments at a time before returning to their monotonous office routines. BLAM! takes its time letting us get to know the distinct personalities of the four workers – the boss, the showoff, the nerd, the usual guy. And then, to steal a phrase, ‘BLAM!’, the snippets transform into a full-blown action adventure on the scale of Diehard, The Matrix, or T2: Judgment Day.

Director and creator Kristján Ingimarsson and the company have spared no detail in this carefully crafted romp of insanity. The four performers repurpose every object you would find in an office, transforming them into high-flying, careening, walloping, pulverizing WHAM, BAM, action-adventure glory. The genius of their physical gags, acrobatics, and object use offer constant surprise as they build minute by minute. Finally, when it seems like the show has blammed all there is to blam, BLAM! takes us on a journey of such insane proportions it’s difficult to believe that it all occurred live inside a theatre with only four guys and some office supplies.

For fans of action adventure, flips and tricks, machine guns and glory, or playful physical comedy, BLAM! unabashedly delivers a wild theatrical experience you have surely never imagined. The company has taken a high pedigree of skill in theatre, comedy, and acrobatics, and given their full capacity to invent pure mayhem on a scale I have never seen so expertly and precisely mounted in a theatre production. For those who like a little story, don’t worry, there is love, tragedy, heartbreak, friendship, and a poker scene with subtle touches of physical theatre finesse.

Across the landscape of work at this year’s fringe, BLAM! offers the sort of adrenaline-pumped escapism that you would usually only find in the megaplex. The show might feel like it’s short on artistic depth… but in fact it manages to capture subtlety in its expert use of diverse theatre and circus forms, and, well, it’s so much fun!

Formosa Circus Arts - Self and Others

Formosa Circus Arts: Self and Others

Formosa Circus Arts - Self and OthersSelf and Others by Formosa Circus Arts, and part of the Taiwan Season at Fringe, presents a blend of circus, theatre, and dance. The company works unusually for a circus, preferring to focus on group dynamics, dance, and texture, instead of individual virtuosity. Each performer wears the same minimal costume in rather consistently dim lighting to create an effect of a singular whole that morphs and moves through space. This ensemble focus generates many of both the strengths and weaknesses of Self and Others.

In their opening image, one of the performers emerges balanced in a handstand on top of an amorphous gloop where limbs appear to be far more numerous than people. The beautiful image of the mass is captivating, and repeats in a variety of formations throughout the show. The weakness, however, came through in individual skill as the performer in the handstand at the top of the mass never actually managed to press into a handstand. Instead, he managed to balance with bent arms momentarily before returning to the ground. Initially, I wondered if this could be attributed to style, but they continued to attempt handstands and balances in various formations, and frequently fell, struggled, or missed. This muddiness in acrobatic skill carried over to other turns that emerged beautifully out of ensemble movement, only to be executed in a clunky finale. It is also worth noting that the recorded music accompanying these feats was uneven – sometimes lending a soft eeriness that enhanced their shape-shifting, but at other times striking repeated harsh tones that seemed at odds with the nature of the movement, and were sometimes difficult to endure.

Some of the stronger material included some evocative play with light; ensemble silks images that transformed into small characters; and ensemble dance with wood blocks to create a powerful soundscape and numerous visual images. The collective invention of imagery was consistently striking, and laid a foundation that left me curious about what can emerge come from their continued creative exploration. Formosa Circus Arts is a young company (only four years old), and they show great promise. But though I look forward to seeing what they come up with next, it isn’t fully realised here.

Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg / The Barbican: Antigone

AntigoneSuited in a contemporary new translation by Anne Carson that is as stark, cutting, and brutal as the modern world this Antigone lives in, Ivo van Hove’s production at the Edinburgh International Festival descends with the full weight of looming darkness of Sophocles’s classic.

A bold circle of light that beams through the center of Jan Versweyveld’s set stands as a lone symbol of light in a world where we are all on our way to darkness. Video projection by Tal Yarden carries us through cities and barren landscapes that keep us grounded in the sparse physical setting.  This production frames the story squarely around Kreon’s tragic determination and inevitable downfall. Antigone, one of Oedipus’s daughters, refuses to follow the law of the land as Kreon, the ruler of Thebes, orders that her brother Polyneikes will not receive a burial because of his actions in a recent civil war. Antigone refuses, instead calling on the irrevocable laws of nature to demand the justice of honoring her brother in his proper rites.

After a heated confrontation between Antigone and Kreon, he orders her execution. From this moment on, Antigone marches toward her death with ease and acceptance, virtually without complaint. This stands against Kreon’s demise, which makes death a far preferable alternative. His fate includes every horror that could be dealt to a man, and is made worse only by the fact that he does not die.

This production, produced by the Barbican and Les Theatres de la Ville, weaves Sophocles’s classic story simply and brutally. There is a sense of remorselessness in the grey office setting that matches Kreon’s unwillingness to change the course of his commands. The pleasure he takes in his complete authority mirrors the sense of doom that seems to pour out from governments daily across the globe where rulers choose their pride and power instead of governing earnestly for a common good.

Antigone, on a contemporary landscape, lands somewhere between a challenge and a warning: Will we learn before it is too late? Or is this a whistle in the breeze notifying us that we are past the point of no return to our inevitable demise?

The performances are strong through the ensemble. The chorus acts wisely as a collection of concerned citizens monitoring the moral compass of the central action. Actors shift easily between central roles and chorus parts, holding us inside a fluid universe where everyone changes identity, even the symbolic Juliette Binoche as Antigone (who becomes a messenger), but not Kreon, played powerfully by Patrick O’Kane. He remains trapped inside his own moral incapacity.

Particularly exceptional performances are turned in by Finbar Lynch in a biting scene as Tiresias, and Samuel Edward-Cook as Haimon going toe-to-toe with Kreon as he argues for the virtue of one’s ability to alter their perspective.

Haimon throws thick philosophical passages at Kreon in their confrontation, challenging notions of power and education, as he lays out simple truths that are at once undeniable yet elusive. ‘There’s nothing shameful in being a person able to learn,’ Haimon pleads. We all know, sadly, that if Kreon does learn, it will certainly be too late. We hope the same isn’t true for us.

360_allstars_onyx__productions

Onyx Productions: 360 Allstars

360 Allstars is a fully-amped, family-friendly showcase of what the show calls ‘urban circus.’ If the X-Games made a family circus, this is probably what it would look like.

Boasting skills including break dancing, BMX flatlanding, basketball freestyling, and Roue Cyr (the lone traditional circus element in the show), each performer struts their stuff in a showcase-style setting that brings focus to their impressive skillsets. Simple gimmicks add a videogame tint to the show, but these play simply as backdrops. The show includes bits of humour, especially from Basketball Man (Rashaun Daniels) and B-Boy Leerok, who clowns around throughout the show.

The performers are strongest as individuals, and when they join together to blend their acts in the finale, it is evident that they are stretching outside their comfort zones, but still they have a blast experimenting, blending, and playing together. Rhys Miller (the Roue Cry artist), the only traditional circus artist in the bunch, weaves his skillsets most seamlessly. However, even in the mix with such physical virtuosity, the show belongs to live looping sensation Sam Perry, who DJs and acts as an emcee. Perry’s energy pumps the show along from beginning to end, and he leaves the audience amazed as he loops live vocal recordings into a single track.

 

Correction

VerTeDance: Correction

Perhaps the most riveting performance at this year’s fringe features seven dancers who never move their feet.

Correction begins with seven people standing still in a line across the stage. Four musicians sit behind them wearing black. The rest of the theatre is empty with the exception of a pair of shoes on the far left side. Anything more would clutter the magnetic virtuosity that follows.

First with simple glances, then inching to increasingly complex movements, Correction trusts deeply in its simple concept: seven dancers in a line wearing shoes bound to the floor. The performance, by the Czech company VerTeDance, studies the nature of creativity built from restriction. By having their feet essentially nailed to the floor, the dancers explore a wide range of movement that appears nothing short of magical.

The choreography, by the dancers: Veronika Kotlíková, Tereza Ondrová, Martina Hajdyla Lacová, Karolína Hejnová, Robo Nižník, Jaro Ondruš, and Petr Opavský, with direction by Jiří Havelka, explores patterns, curiosities of physics, personal (often humorous) relationships, fear and combativeness, and somehow reaches inside the darkness of the human psyche, then seamlessly shifts into comic bits including one with a banana.

The dancers are as extraordinary in their technical skill as they are in their vivid, personal connection to the material. Before long, each dancer has a distinct personality, and they find tremendous joy playing with subtle variations on simple concepts like leaning, poking, falling, or running (without moving their feet of course). The choreography manages to remain somehow simultaneously ordinary and transcendent. It is this careful duality that allows one to experience the piece on a theatrical, human level, and on a complex choreographic scale of expertly crafted theme and variation. I can imagine dancers, acrobats, theatre lovers, children, farmers, runners, and even people who don’t like dance finding something to love in Correction.

But let me not forget those four musicians sitting in the back wearing black. The score, mostly clarinet blended with atmospheric vocals, shapes the open space with ease and panache. I could have sat spellbound only listening to their music,  but the blend of the musicians and dancers together generate consistent moments of pure bliss. They never do too much… until the moment is right, then they go wild.

 

Correction plays at Zoo Southside daily 11-19 August 2015