by Yanik Comeau (Comunik Média/ZoneCulture)
Friday night (March 7th), Centaur Theatre Company’s WinterWorks Festival welcomed a small, intimate audience to its gallery for another original, off-beat piece of theatre but in a very meditative, introspective, audience-participation kind of way. Other Hearts Collective, a group of exploratory artists/ethnographers, explore how and when a place because the place. And if that sounds to “in-your-head”, too intellectual for you, don’t worry. These down-to-earth, warm, hospitable performers have created a spontaneously interactive question fest with a brilliantly singular set design that metamorphosizes with the help on a cartographer/gardener who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.
On paper – or on Centaur’s website – “On What Ground is an exploration of the ways we find, make and leave the cities that define us. Combining music, movement, and honest conversations with the artists and the audience, we work together to find what makes a place the place.” Through a series of about thirty existential questions that are the metaphoric roots of plants, weeds and branches planted in the soil, the land that is our island, the performers use the words, phrases, answers thrown out by audience members to construct a spontaneous improvised poem that will be typed out on a good old-fashioned typewriter and played out in the end like a fascinating spoken-word present to the audience.
Throughout this experiment, performer Eris Thomas will also share their personal experience of loss of land as they tell the story of the family farm being sold and becoming just a place that used to be the place. Also throughout the whole piece, a old clock radio will provide music and crackle between songs and frequencies as Alastair Cavanagh plays with the dial.
This unique experience – never the same as the audience’s responses change from one show to the next – is a soothing balm on our numerous open wounds that have been burning deep in the last few weeks, the last few… decades? Stopping and thinking about what spaces and places mean and feel to us is a great way to focus on something very personal yet so important and precious. Let’s explore our roots with this brilliant bunch of sensitive artists.
On What Ground by Other Hearts Collective Written by Other Hearts… and the audience Creators/Performers: Eris Thomas, Sebastian Marziali, Yousef Kadoura, Eija Loponen-Stephenson Creator/Dramaturg: Silvae Mercedes Music/Sound Creator: Alastair Cavanagh Dramaturg: David Gagnon Walker Presented by Centaur Theatre Company for the WinterWorks Festival March 7th and 8th, 2025 (Time: 45 minutes, no intermission) Centaur Theatre, 453, St. François-Xavier Street, Montreal Reservations: 514-288-3161 Information: https://centaurtheatre.com/shows/on-what-ground/
Comments