We witness the birth of one, umbilical cord held by the others, with a “goo goo ga ga – G’day!” greeting gurgled by D Marcucci as the mercurial newborn. But everyone on stage seems to be discovering their body for the first time. John Norris is half-fascinated, half-frightened, on removing his robe’s hood, to realise he has a bushy moustache.
Claire Woolner and Max Baumgarten are not just finding their voices but simply getting used to having a tongue in their mouths. In a show co-directed by Norris and Corey Podell, this pack of monks nervously shuffles among us clutching each other as well as a bowl of water. A lanyard is torn from an audience member and thrown in with a satanic sizzle.
They appear bound by a secret code that they may not quite remember. All fingers and thumbs with the bowl, their ritual devolves into a game of rock, paper, scissors with some tricksy lighting. When they dunk themselves, the bowl becomes a mystical portal for each monk’s interlinking vision.
Rather than plunge in, I spent the first few minutes sceptical, wary of self-indulgence as the quartet endlessly fretted. But with each passing chime that rings out, the show becomes a richly weird stew of ideas – about connection, alienation, the limits of language – expressed through masterly movement. The dynamic between each individual and the rest of the ensemble is carefully choreographed even outside routines such as a ball in a nonsense kingdom, a slow duet with an audience member soundtracked to Adele or the Bob Fosse-esque routine that meets Marcucci’s birth.
The foursome are testing faith too – not just in an irresistible repeated gag where they don’t fully understand how to do a trust fall. It’s one of those shows that retains the giddy spirit of an easy-to-imagine devising process. Twisted and twisty until a flurry of final reveals, this monkish mischief also leaves lots to contemplate.
At Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh, until 30 August. Then at Soho theatre, London, 11-23 January
Extract — continue reading at the source.
