FOLLOW ME by the company (Staples). At Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. July 8 at 7 pm, July 10 at 9:45 pm, July 12 at 11 pm, July 13 at 5:45 pm, July 14 at noon. See listing. Rating: NNNN
This successful experiment in physical and symbolic theatre feels like a straight-forward naturalistic play stripped down to its elemental parts and reassembled with emphasis on foregrounding the often-obscured subtext.
The four performers and co-creators (Lisa Alves, Alexi Pedneault, Elizabeth Staples and Stefan Till) use their bodies and a long piece of red yarn to literally string together a series of rapid-fire scenes that present different characters and problems in highly abstracted form, in order to examine what is essential in each.
The approach risks becoming a jumble of unrelated bits, but here the strong acting, movement and writing make each bit funny, coherent, engaging and most crucially highly relatable to everyday experience.
Whether the characters are exploring megalomania, avarice, obsession, insecurity or anxiety, the insights they offer about authority, power and interconnection ring true.