Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Verdensteatret’s BRIDGE OVER MUD at BAM is hypnotic, seductive

• By drediman
• September 13, 2016
• No Comments

Verdensteatret’s “Bridge Over Mud” at BAM’s Next Wave Festival

BAM’s Next Wave Festival continued last weekend with the brief run of Norwegian art collective Verdensteatret’s Bridge Over Mud at the flexible and intimate BAM Fisher space. Bridge Over Mud is one of those types of pieces that defies easy categorization. The folks at Verdensteatret themselves describe what they do, I think, most eloquently – they want audiences to “see the sound, listen to the images”. A visual symphony, if you will. If anything, Bridge Over Mud, is most akin to visual art; the piece would fit right at home in one of the galleries at MoMA or the Whitney.

What the hour-long piece lacks in plot (some audience members may be frustrated with there being very little to intellectually grasp on to), it makes up for in moody paranoia and intensely stylish noir. The set is comprised of a vast network of tracks on which sculpture-like objects are transported in seemingly random directions. In this controlled chaos, a certain synthesis occurs between the moving objects, the drone-like score (played live), and carefully calibrated lighting and projections – the endeavor suggests a teeming metropolis coming to life before one’s eyes. However, there’s something fatalistic and terrifying about it all, almost as if this whole “cityscape” was careening towards some unspecified apocalyptic end. This is hypnotic, seductive, and unnerving stuff.

RECOMMENDED

BRIDGE OVER MUD
Performance Art
Verdensteatret (in association with FuturePerfect Productions) at BAM Fisher
1 hour (without an intermission)
Closed