COMPANY NAME: Bock and Vincenzi	TITLE OF SHOW: Breathtaking (work in progress)
DATE OF VISIT: 21/12/99	VENUE: The People Show

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I will start out by saying that this show was really exceptional – I’m going to have to dig hard to find criticism of this work! It was enchanting, humorous, beautiful to look at. It’s even going to be hard to write about the positive things – there was so much to look at in this show that I am not sure where to start…

 

The show had no narrative but simply seemed to explore various themes and images of childhood related to sleep, bedtime, or just childhood games or songs. The performance style was appealing too as the intense use of set and costumes made it a very visual show which did not rely on dance technique virtuosity for effect, but on the personalities of the performers and the way they interacted with each other and reacted to the various scenarios. The movement used was entertaining, effective, and exploratory, and so unlike many shows I have seen, I have no problem classifying this show as a dance show.

 

Visually, ‘Breathtaking’ was just stunning and the title in this sense was very apt – however, a slight niggle – I would question how appropriate this title is otherwise, given that the show is aimed at children. I would suggest that the title should be something more obvious/accessible as the connection in my opinion is too esoteric for a child to make the connection.

 

However the opening scene certainly was breath-taking: A red velvet curtain hung at the back of the stage, and a meandering trail of fairy lights hung above it. Onstage, there were 5 small blue beds, cartoon-like in their chunkiness and colour, and they had bright purple fake fur mattresses. The performers (all in white night-shirts) lay on the beds curled up in various attitudes of sleep. A voice sang a repetitive lullaby.

 

The music ended and a child’s voice chanted ‘One potato, two potato, three potato, four’ heralding the waking of the performers who began twitching more and more violently (and hilariously) to the pantomime music which accompanied them waking up. The beds were whisked offstage by the performers who span, pushed and pulled them around the stage.

 

The use of the set was very good throughout, the beds described above appeared to be on wheels and some of them also had detachable bed-heads, which were removed for various parts of the action. The curtain at the back was also used as performers stood behind it, poking and pushing at it from behind. Dry ice was used  to great effect to enhance the otherworldy atmosphere at some points.The lighting was also excellent, creating magical, exciting or calming effects including the use of a disco-ball, but most excitingly, at one point the lights were all turned off, and the only light came from the costumes of the performers – underneath their night-shirts they appeared to have put on black skirts held out with some sort of hoop in the hem, and through holes in these skirts shone fairy lights. Because the house lights were off it appeared that each performer was gliding across the stage, floating on stars – it was awesome.

 

Adults would enjoy this show just as much as children I believe. The children in the audience seemed entranced by each new scene, and I enjoyed the references to childhood experiences, songs and other things I remembered and could relate to. For example, the performers came out with silver cups tied to their heads. Now this was an innovative design choice anyway, but what was beautiful was the way they then shuffled and hopped around the stage yawning and sprinkling silver glitter around the stage. They took the glitter from the cups on their heads and made it appear that it was falling from their eyes – the reference could have been to either the sand-man or to fairy-dust but either way it looked extraordinary.

 

The range of sounds used was comprehensive, from panto music to song, to a Jew’s harp, to various other sound effects which sounded like they were created for the piece. The variety, and the use of silence as well, was great.

 

Costume was also well-used. Apart from the fairy light-skirts which I describe above, there was also a recurring theme of pink furrry rabbits – for no apparent reason, it seemed, a performer would appear, dressed in a pink fake fur rabbit costume, and observe what the others were doing. At other times these rabbits became part of the games being played onstage, or crept in while the rest of the cast were sleeping to put someone who was awake back to sleep. At another point performers appeared in night-shirts which were obviously far too big for them – like a child in their older brother or sister’s clothes. Joke glassess with goggly-eyes also had their part in a scene with much crying in it.

 

The humour and the games never seemed to end, and the fund of material to be found in childrens games was well-used; we saw chasing, hiding, performers taking turns to do different tasks or perform different scenes/movements, performers manipulating the movements of other performers. In fact the only criticism I can think of is that possibly the piece was too long. By the last 15 minutes the material, although still magical, was being repeated, and although with variation, the children in the audience were getting grizzly and impatient. So full points to Bock and Vincenzi for a magical show – just make it a bit shorter and it’ll be perfect.