Bright and bouncy
THE audience will affect the performance.
Depending on numbers the heat may be on.
Because in Air Play, the atmosphere has both a metaphorical and a literal effect.
The show at the Regent Theatre tonight and tomorrow uses everything from giant balloons to air sculptures created by a circle of fans that manipulates objects in the updraft.
Performer Christina Gelsone says the body heat of the audience intensely affects what the pair does.
If there were a lot of people, the resulting body heat would change the air in the theatre, meaning settings would have to be changed on the fans.
It is one aspect of a very technical show.
‘‘We work with a kinetic sculptor, someone who works with sculptures that move,’’ Gelsone says.
‘‘He invented this ring of fans in which very particular kinds of fabric can fly, various objects can fly.’’
Partner Seth Bloom said the show needed ‘‘a tremendous amount of height’’.
At the Regent, Air Play’s technical crew used trigonometry to bounce the light off the floor so it landed in the perfect place.
‘‘That’s different in every theatre we do, so that’s the first thing we’re doing today here.’’
Of the show, Gelsone said it was a visual picture that reached beyond the stage.
‘‘It’s something that stretches up so far you cannot see the entire thing.
‘‘It’s just massive, beautiful.’’
The pair came from a circus tradition rather than theatre, so ‘‘we go into the audience.
‘‘We want the audience to feel like they’re part of the sculpture, part of the play.’’
Bloom said the show was done without words, so it could be performed anywhere in the world.
‘‘It really reaches everybody. ‘‘We want people to laugh and have a good time, but we also want to touch them emotionally and have them feel something.’’