Photo credits: Left – Prudence Upton. Cover – Jamie Williams
Quite often the narrative in circus based theatre can be anything from flimsy to incomprehensible. Tabac Rouge appears to be nearer to the later. Fear not. Sit back, free your mind of the desire for story and immerse yourself in the sights and sounds before you. It’s going to be quite a ride.
Tabac Rouge is baffling, brilliant and at times awe inspiring. It is a surreal journey rooted in circus and movement based performance. Contraptions that resemble backstage scaffolding are wheeled onto an empty black stage, soon followed by props including a writing desk complete with typewriter and later a sewing machine. These props are part of a fascination throughout the show with the way that machines and people are put together. This emphasis on machinery gives a rich and cluttered texture to both the visual (James Thierree) and sound design (Thomas Delot). The sound design is full of tapping, scraping and scratching sounds which give the show a real industrial feel. This is a dystopian world and its disintegration feels complete when a huge facade of mirrors is dangled from the ceiling and swung around the room.
The main character in this machine collapsing dystopia is an aging ruler who moves like a Pinocchio doll doing a sideways Michael Jackson moonwalk. The show appears to chart his downfall as he fails to communicate with those under him. Passages of writing are typed up by his minions only to be read by this disgruntled gent and ripped to shreds. In one especially memorable piece of psychical theatre a girl almost literally pulls her own legs off in order to get through to him. Then, it seems the bottom and top halves of her move in opposite directions. Seeing may well be believing, but in this case, I’m still not sure.
Comparisons are made between the breakdown of machines and the communication failure between people. The comparison is extended as man and machine appear to merge towards the end. The ruler appears to flick a switch on the back of a dancer’s neck when she is lying face down. She proceeds to come back to life and does a jerky robotic dance. The ruler himself has his heart restarted by a rather imposing looking black instrument, perhaps signalling that the merge between man and machine is now complete.
Director, set designer and chorographer, James Thierree is the creator of Tabac Rouge. He last appeared at the Sydney Festival in 2006 with Bright Abyss. James has been creating his own circus and movement pieces since 1998, after a childhood spent touring with his parent’s circus. He is the grandson of Charlie Chaplin, so the physical comedy gene, is definitely in his DNA. James has acted in several films include Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books.
The performance ended with each cast member, holding up a sign reading “Je Sui Charlie” in support of the twelve victims of the shooting at the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris the day before. The audience stood as one in support.
Compagnie du Hanneton presents
TABAC ROUGE
Directed, choreographed and performed by James Thierrée
Venue: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay | 22 Hickson Road Walsh Bay
Dates: 8 – 23 January 2015
Tickets: $119 – $72
Bookings: www.sydneyfestival.org.au
Part of the 2015 Sydney Festival
