There could hardly be a better subject for visual theatre than creation and Belgium’s Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté’s show Kefar Nahum’s approach to the subject is brutal, disorienting and reflective of the constant state of war in nature itself and by imbuing man-made objects with life it also looks sharply at the violence of our own species.
Kefar Nahum a hybrid eat hybrid world where creatures made from discarded material are born, fight for life, get devoured and then cycle starts over again. Performer Nicole Mossoux flexed her frame and used almost every part of her body to give birth to monstrous beasts made of cloth, metal and plastic which, accompanied by a cacophonous soundtrack evolved, devolved and reconstituted themselves.
The powerful finale where Moussoux threw away all her creatures and turned the violence in on herself was a strong coda to what was a stunning, thought provoking and masterful piece of theatre rapturously received by the audience who were left with much to think about on their way home.
The plural in the title of the set of scare stories that made up Fear(s) Of The Dark was apposite not only because this is a collection of tales from different animators but also because they dealt with both the terrors of the night and the darkness inside ourselves.
The atmospheric black and white animations of childhood nightmares, sci-fi horror, old dark houses and just plain skin crawling creepiness used different approaches to the art-form but linked together to make an exquisitely discomforting whole.
“There’s nothing out there in the dark that isn’t there in the light” so the saying goes but the diabolical workings of these six warped animator’s minds might make you feel very differently.
Check out the rest of the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival @ The Traverse Theatre