From the highest high to the horrific in ‘Touching the Void’
cheLSeA — “there’s always a choice,” says mountain climber Joe Simpson. that statement becomes a constant refrain in “touching the Void,” an imaginative and visceral retelling of one man’s near-death experience, now playing at Apollinaire theatre company through May 19.
the true story of two climbers’ harrowing descent of Siula Grande, a 20,000-foot-high peak in the Peruvian Andes, was turned into a best-selling memoir in 1988 and a docudrama in 2003 before playwright David Greig (“the Strange undoing of Prudencia hart”) adapted the story, taking liberties with characters and events (spoiler alert: Simpson survived) for the stage. this retelling opens at a pub in Scotland, where Joe’s sister Sarah (Parker Jennings), bursting with anger, grief, and a whole lot of Jameson’s whiskey, hosts a wake for her brother, attended by his climbing partner Simon (Kody Grassett) and that duo’s base camp manager, Richard (Zach fuller). As Sarah rages against climbers, mocking their determination to blaze a new trail up a dangerous mountain “because it’s there,” Simon tries to explain the appeal of climbing.
As the sad trio drinks to Joe, we realize something is off. In the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a moment, a sudden gust bowls the characters over. these jarring moments recur unexpectedly, shaking us out of any suggestion of realism. When Simon tries to describe the way climbing makes him feel, we shift from a demonstration of the climbing technique used for a successful ice climb — with two canes and two umbrellas standing in for ice axes — to Sarah gamely donning a harness and getting a rush from scaling a peak (a sturdy piece of the set).
for his part, Richard (a character created by Greig) serves as a kind of Greek chorus, narrating the story while providing comic relief as a goofy drifter in “clown trousers” who joins the team in the hopes their adventure will provide material for his book.
When Sarah asks Richard to take her through what happened on her brother’s climb of Siula Grande, he delivers expository descriptions of the style of climbing Joe and Simon practiced: “alpine style” (a minimalist approach that consists of “two men, a rope, and the abyss”) versus “siege” climbing (in a large group), as well as some historical context and a sidebar on Joe’s hero, alpine climbing founder toni Kurz. Just when the play starts to sag under the weight of technical detail, our attention zooms in as Richard — using peanuts and overturned chairs to represent the jagged terrain — lays out the challenges confronting the climbers on their pivotal climb. And then, our attention zooms out as Simon and Joe (Patrick O’Konis) appear, re-creating their conversation and decision to attempt Siula Grande, their triumphant climb up, and their devastating descent.
this is where director Danielle fauteux Jacques and her production team — especially scenic and sound designer Joseph Lark-Riley — tap their truly creative approach to theatrical staging. there are no elaborate projections or technical wizardry; instead cloth-covered theater seats become the sheer mountain face, with Grassett and O’Konis, wearing helmets, harnesses, and linked together by rope, clamber across and up to the imagined summit. As the weather changes, the pair begin their descent, but Joe sustains serious injuries, and mishaps pile up until Simon, at the end of his strength, and assuming Joe is dead, cuts the rope that ties him to Joe and struggles back to base camp alone.
the second act follows Joe’s endurance and determination to survive. his vision of his sister Sarah becomes his motivator and tormentor, pushing him to continue long past exhaustion and pain. Watching this section of the play is terrifying and inspiring as Sarah cajoles Joe to choose achievable goals, one rock formation at a time.
this interpretation of the story focuses on reliving Joe’s painfilled experience, as he pulls himself out of a crevasse with a shattered leg and drags himself across rocky terrain back to base camp. Since character development is less important than the physicality of the experience, we are left with only fleeting glimpses of the men’s motivation, or addiction even, to “touching the void.” Although Sarah is told over and over again why it is so thrilling and meaningful to risk one’s life by climbing a mountain, the more powerful message of “touching the Void” is how powerful the will to live is, and how choosing to go on, long after one might reasonably quit, is the play’s life lesson. It’s a lesson that one might need to remember when faced with life’s vicissitudes, but life can send enough crevasses and landslides our way without having to seek them out on a mountaintop.