Adelaide Festival: Azimut

Is it physical theatre? Is it Dance? Is it circus? Whatever it is, it is extraordinary, weird, wonderful and mesmerising, and quite beautiful. And it’s perfect as an opening gambit for a Festival of Arts that brings new ideas, challenges our complacency and opens new vistas of artistic expression.

A soloist making haunting music dimly lit against the dark is soon surrounded by moving bags, some of which seem to transform into curled human figures, sets the scene for an hour of hypnotic music, drumming, light and shadows, silhouettes and shapes, moving, climbing, floating, swinging, swarming, and mystifying illusion.

[pull_left]An amazing, beautiful and mysterious performance[/pull_left]

The rapid scene changes alone were masterful and almost magical. New configurations of bodies intermingling in extraordinary shapes and configurations appeared and dissolved. A series of gracefully slow cartwheels accelerated into rapid, if not frenetic wheeling across the stage. A pregnant woman appeared to “give birth” to the entire company, which later all struggled humorously to climb into the same bag. Silhouetted figures rhythmically climbed a grid, a person walked effortlessly upside down across the ceiling and others swung exuberantly out over the audience, which erupted into appreciative and wondering applause at having been bamboozled and challenged so.

An amazing, beautiful and mysterious performance, exquisitely fitting for a Festival.