THE HANGOVER REPORT – Aurélien Bory’s ESPÆCE is hybrid performance in the truest sense of the word

Aurélien Bory's "Espæce" at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Photo by Victor Tonelli.

Aurélien Bory’s “Espæce” at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Photo by Victor Tonelli.

This past weekend, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House played host to Compagnie 111’s production of Espœce. The piece is hybrid performance in the truest sense of the word – opera, dance, physical theater, mime, and circus arts all coalesce in equal measure to portray, in theatrical terms, the witty and mischievous writings of multi-disciplinary French artist Georges Perec.

I’ve long been fascinated by the use of space and perspective in relation to performance. In this respect, Espœce’s continuously shifting stage pictures had no difficulty in attracting my attention. Indeed, the staging does an admirable job of seamlessly creating a sinuously fluid visual spectacle. Even if the production’s relationship to the works of Mr. Perec and its logical through-line aren’t always apparent, the tableaus that creator Aurélien Bory has created are almost always arresting.

Mr. Bory is a theatrical auteur on the grandest scale. Only a visionary as ambitious as Mr. Bory could have imagined and successfully realized the monumental, rotating transformer of a set that is at the (literal) center of Espœce. Members of the disparately talented cast (comprised of comics, opera singers, acrobats, dancers/mimes), although a constant joy to watch, seem almost secondary to the “transformer”. Nevertheless, each had ample opportunities to shine, which they seized with aplomb.

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ESPÆCE
Performance
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

Categories: Dance, Off-Broadway, Theater

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