Perth International Arts Festival 2014

    It was another tremendous festival for PIAF this year. Some offerings were oh so new and others followed a more visible trendy path.  A few of my favorites include:

Stonehenge Bouncy Castle

  Stonehenge Bouncy Castle. Yeah, that needs repeating.  Stonehenge Bouncy Castle.  Officially known as Sacrilege, it is a life-size, inflated art installation modelled after the famous Stonehenge.  Even if it weren't a free event, it still would have been a very popular attraction for people of all ages. Located in the Supreme Court Gardens in the Central Business District, it became a magnet for all the young adults in their business suits who would shed their shoes and run around with with wild abandon during their lunch hour. Private schools in the CBD would schedule their physical education classes on Stonehenge. Shoot, even someone like myself  who has no history with bouncy castles gave it a whirl.  It is made of very heavy rubber canvas which heated up spectacularly in the summer sun. OUCH!  It required frequent cold water hosedowns.

"Sacrilege" at PIAF 2014

     
     Now, something like this could attract as many troublemakers as it would funmakers. So it would be deflated at night and re-inflated in the morning.  Twelve little generators attached to twelve small 'pipes' took exactly three minutes bring back the joy of this rubber wonderland.

Not By Bread Alone post show chat

   Not By Bread Alone.  Step into another world as the Israeli professional theater troupe for deaf-blind, Nalaga'at Deaf-Blind Theatre Ensemble, walks the audience through the stories of their lives, dreams and ambitions while actually baking bread on stage.  Eleven performers with various levels of acute blindness and deafness communicate through carers/translators (except for two who speak clearly) and are kept on pace by the banging of a drum.  Director Adina Tal, a self-professed hard case ("I'm not a nice person.") who doesn't tolerate a 'poor me' attitude,  thought she would be working with this group at its beginning for about two months. Fourteen years later she is still leading this engaging group to international audiences. Their stories are engrossing.  The smell of the bread baking onstage is intoxicating. And the invitation to go on stage after the show to eat some hot bread and chat with the performers through their translators is too tempting to resist. These connecting short and  informal chats are particularly satisfying for both performer and audience member.
    A heightened sense of life without sight and sound could be had at the Blackout Restaurant experience. Forty people per show day (who were very fast with their credit cards at the ticket office) could eat supper in complete darkness served by blind waiters. Not By Bread Alone was a very interesting experience.

Bianco. copyright UWA

    Bianco.  The contemporary image of  a circus is a far cry from the days of yore where lions jump through flaming hoops, elephants dance on their hind legs, bearded ladies flex muscles and men are shot out of cannon.  Replacing this nostalgia  is the example set by Cirque du Soleil and now imitated and altered by many.  Bianco by NoFit State Circus  provided the physical artistry in trapeze, tightrope, man-spoke hoops, gymnastics , contortionism and movement that one expects in a modern circus. The big difference is in the audience. There were no chairs, so the audience stands during the entire performance. And this makes sense as the set design shifted often to accommodate a new act, so the audience needed to shift also. This gave a new point of view with every change and gave a highly immersive feel  to the whole performance. By the end of the show, the audience was entirely the center of the 'stage' and the performance was surrounding them.  It ended with snow shower--real, large flakes blown from snow machines. A rather magical final impression.