reviewvancouver:The Cultch, Gravity & Other Myths’ The Mirror

Gravity & Other Myths is an Adelaide, Australia based acrobatic troupe. Their loosely themed, eighty-minute show The Mirror fits between well choreographed dance and precise team acrobatics and also includes multimedia elements.

Ten performers –five men and five women including Megan Drury who supplies the off-kilter vocals throughout the show take to the Vancouver Playhouse stage. The troupe has already performed this production at Sydney’s famous Opera House and at the Chamäleon Theater in Berlin, Germany. After Vancouver, Gravity & Other Myths (GOM) will take the show to Quebec, Montreal and Toronto. However, only current artists Lewis Rankin, Emily Gare and Maya Tregonning were with the original ensemble.

The Mirror is a non-linear multidisciplinary show that explores through dance, music, lighting and circus stunts the concept of self-presentation and finding true self. It’s a lofty purpose that begins slowly with Megan Drury alone on stage scanning the waveband on a boom-box, with constant curtain crossings back and forth across the stage that briefly reveal then conceal a performer in motion.

The Mirror is definitely entertaining, though at times intentionally chaotic. The fun in seeing the chaos in contemporary circus is seeing where it leads. These artists are elite athletes who have total trust in each other. They have to – one tiny slip when tumbling backwards into a team-mate’s arms could result in serious injury.

Despite this potential for injury, no one takes themselves particularly seriously. One of the most comical sequences is where two performers are manipulated into kissing dolls while others climb over and through them. Vocalist Megan Drury breaks down the invisible wall between performer and audience by leaving the stage and joining the audience with a camera.

GOM are a terrific example of the Australian artistry and spirit – plus having a healthy disregard for the myth of gravity.