Best of BE Festival

Circomedia

THE Best of BE Festival 2019 felt angry, stifling and for a long time slightly inhospitable.

As a showcase of some of the best performance art currently taking place in Europe, it doesn’t take a huge guess to understand what could be driving this mood. Brexit hovers all over it. This doesn’t always make for the easiest night at the theatre.

The bar is set with Swiss parkour phenomenon Marc Oosterhoof’s Take Care Of Yourself. Downing a shot of whisky and then performing a backwards somersault every time he fails to land a ball in the bin situated about 10 feet away, the danger levels just continue to rise. Knives are chucked at a board, each one landing with a quiver. Three blades are balanced facing upwards and Oosterhoof leans back on a chair swinging his legs. One stumble could lead to disaster, a teeter on the edge of insanity. Mousetraps litter the floor, each ready to snap and cause damage. He walks between them, eyes shut and then continues his deadly maze. It’s heart in mouth stuff.

Tom Cassani’s Someone Loves You Drive With Care, left me angry and bored. Cassani’s work felt impenetrable and remote. Besides some forays into grotesque body horror, with nails being driven into faces, the whole just failed to elicit much response apart from clock counting. There were a few who didn’t return after the interval.

Which is a shame as Cie. Kirkas’ Control Freak is a work of mastery, performer and director Kulu Orr, creating a symphony of multimedia on stage alone. Using wearable computers he created and lopped music, controlled and distorted light and video. While performing circus tricks! It is a work of joy; funny and assured.

The whole feels very much like a microcosm of Brexit. Real danger mixed with boredom and frustration with the daily trudge of liars dominating our screens, but perhaps still hope.