Out Of Order

Streaming online from The Cultch until March 21, 2021
Tickets from $29 at 604-251-1363 or thecultch.com/event/out-of-order

Posted March 20, 2021

“Panem et circenses”, wrote Juvenal, a late 1^st century/early 2^nd century CE Roman poet. Translated from Latin it means ‘bread and circuses’ and is used to describe ways of pacifying discontent or diverting attention. If there ever is a time when we need diversion, it’s now, mid-pandemic.

The phrase has also come to suggest extravagant entertainment and it’s in this light that Montreal’s Les 7 Doigts (The 7 Fingers) presents Out Of Order. The world is out of order, the theatre is out of order, the circus is out of order. There are no audiences to applaud but the show must go on nevertheless.

And what a show. Out Of Order feels like a poor man’s circus: ragtag costumes – no two alike, grotesque makeup (Véronique St. Germain) and weird hairstyles and the bare necessities in the way of a set except for a few strings of little lights, a table and chairs. But don’t be fooled: more than thirty hours of filming has been edited down to an hour. Multiple cameras capture the movement, putting you right inside the action; you can see the sweat on the bodies, feel the performer’s calm before attempting the most dangerous feats. Seventeen microphones let you hear the breathing, the grunting, the whispers. Original music (Colin Gagné). Fabulous lighting (Alexandre Picotte).

You are flying. You have joined the circus.

There are eleven acts beginning with jousting and tumbling with wooden poles and winding through hula hoops, catapults, silks, banquet and jugglers. The so-called Siamese Twins – neither Siamese nor cojoined – but wrapped in plastic film perform one of the most sensual acts you’ll see outside a club: bodies twisting, wrapping and unwrapping, viewed opaquely through plastic.

Circuses we’ve all seen before. But this one, described by co- director Gypsy Snider as, “neo-post-apocalyptic-retro-futuristic” is truly unique. Strangely, it feels both old and new. Weimar period and 21^st Century. Sartre and Steampunk.

The post show talk on opening night, hosted by Pippa Mackie, was really informative; it will be different each night but don’t miss it. When asked by an online viewer if it was difficult performing without an audience, the reply was, “Ah, the camera becomes the audience”. Indeed, you feel you are behind the camera.

Brilliant film editor Francisco Cruz says the editing was a, “reflection of our emotions” – “emotional editing” that not only caught the action but captured the way the action made the viewer feel.

As with Cirque du Soleil, Out Of Order attempts – but not totally successfully – a storyline. While I found that somewhat obscure, what is absolutely clear is the theme of “intoxication”, inspired by Baudelaire, whose poem, Enivrez-Vous , entreats us to be drunk. “Drunk on wine, on poetry, virtue, whatever.” It is a plea to live life fully, to move past the difficult times, to engage.

At times dark and somber, at others exuberant and joyful, Out Of Order offers you a seat you’ve never had before, at a circus the likes of which you’ve never seen before. It’s an intoxicating marriage of circus, theatre and film.