Alia Marshall
Pandora by Creative Motion Collective is an exploration of one of Greek mythology’s most famous stories: Pandora’s box. Circus always reduces me to a five year old, and I love history, so I’m eager to see how this production combines the two.
One by one, the performers filter onto the stage, performing a somersault over a white cube in the middle of the stage. It quickly becomes apparent that this is Pandora's box. Once every performer is in the space, they converge on a small black bag laid on top of the cube, curious about its contents. When they rip it open it’s full of chalk, which is a delightful way of showing the audience that the chaos unleashed from Pandora’s box will be explored through the circus.
In a piece called exhaustion (or endurance, forgive me I cannot remember the title, and the scene evoked both words) the performers come out one at a time and repeat the same trick over and over and over. I find myself getting tired for them, willing them to stop and take a break as the sweat glistens on their foreheads. It feels impossible that the human body is capable of performing such feats that many times in a row, and I feel especially bad for the first performer who balances an extremely heavy pole on his forehead.
Early in the show, there is a stunning rendition of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice where the performer playing Orpheus is blindfolded and leading his Eurydice around the stage. In desperation to stay close to her lover, Eurydice clings to Orpheus, climbing around his body as they navigate the road back from Hades. Eventually, they are led to the trapeze, where they perform a stunning duo act that is even more impressive when you remember that one of them is blindfolded.
I really appreciate hearing the way the performers communicate with one another over the music to keep one another safe. Hearing a “ready” before a jump or throw could be something that takes an audience out of it, but for me it was a reminder that these are humans doing extremely dangerous feats with their bodies, and seeing the trust they have for one another as they do it feels really special.
There are points in the show where the energy dips as the performers take a break offstage and the space is prepared for the next act. While this is not a major issue, I feel as though there could have been something added to those moments to fill that space and keep us as the audience engaged. Perhaps having a host, or a clown, or even some music would help to fill that void and distract us from the scene transition. I am not a circus performer by any means, I come at this purely from my theatre making perspective, so take my words with a grain of salt (or chalk I guess), but filling those transitions with something would have made for an even more stellar show.
Pandora is a delightful example of storytelling through physicality and circus. Whether you’re a classics lover, a circus lover, both, or neither, you will get a kick out of this show.
Pandora was performed at The Circus Hub and closed on Sunday 22nd of February.