Tag Archives: acrobats

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Theatre

Teatro Zinzanni’s “Dinner at Wotan’s” Takes Acrobatics to Valhalla

Ariana Lallone on the Lyra
Ariana Lallone & Tobias Larsson
Vertical Tango
Vertical Tango Live

Photo: Keith Brofsky

Photo: Keith Brofsky

Photo: Keith Brofsky

Photo: zinzanni.org

PlayPrev|Next
Ariana Lallone on the Lyra thumbnail
Ariana Lallone & Tobias Larsson thumbnail
Vertical Tango thumbnail
Vertical Tango Live thumbnail

Teatro ZinZanni’s newest show, Dinner at Wotan’s, running through May 12, is a whirlwind of songs you know and songs you don’t, gravity-defying acrobatics, cabaret, and one memorable bubble bath.

When you go to Teatro ZinZanni, you’re treated to an overstuffed evening. The show, with a palatable plot designed to loosely hold the spectacular acrobatics together, runs about three and a half hours. You’re greeted with an appetizer soon after you’ve been seated, and each act is capped with another course. The spiegeltent is stuffed to the gills with tables; it’s hard to see where the cast is going to fit in!

Dinner at Wotan’s is no exception. Based (extremely) loosely on Nordic mythology, the show combines ’80s power ballads (the above-mentioned bubble bath happens to the tune of “Every Breath You Take,” reworked as, you guessed it, “Every Bath You Take”), traditional Swedish songs, an aria from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (“Pace, pace mio Dio”), and even some of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

But the music fades into the background once the pole comes out. Or the tightrope. Or the trapeze. Of note in this production are Vertical Tango (Sam Payne and Sandra Feusi) as Balder and Helga, and Ariana Lallone as Freya.

“Vertical Tango” is not kidding. I don’t know how they did it (other than a lot of very intense core work), but they took the steamy, sexy, world of tango and flipped it. Rather than twining themselves around only each other, Payne and Feusi entangle themselves with the pole as well, dance-climbing up and down and over and around. At times, Payne held himself completely horizontal to the floor, about twelve feet off the ground. The audience was so clearly caught up in the heat, you could’ve heard a panty drop.

Lallone’s ballet training and work to encompass that training as an aerialist are both displayed beautifully on the lyra (an aerialist hoop). Your food will go cold as you watch her flutter weightlessly from side to side, hang upside down by one leg, effortlessly flip over, and land delicately on one toe pointe. (Credit there must also be given to Anne Gish, who operates the winch.)

Tobias Larsson and Terry Crane were daredevilish as Thor and Loki, and Los Excéntricos were fabulous and endearing as The Dwarves. Geoff Hoyle’s Wotan was a bit tiresome (his audience participation bit went on a little too long), but he was committed. (Note that Wotan will be played by Jarion Monroe from March 27 to May 12.)

It was refreshing to hear classically-trained lyric soprano Kristin Clayton as Brunnhilde, because girl could sing. The minute she opened her mouth it was obvious she was the real thing.

To my extreme disappointment, however, the food was not great. Teatro ZinZanni will make accommodations for gluten-free and vegetarian types (likely also vegans, fruitarians, you-name-its), but some alternative courses are clearly afterthoughts. My (gluten-free) soup tasted like a can of peeled roma tomatoes with basil whizzed up in a blender and barely warmed. The only redeeming aspects of the meal were the salad and the beef short rib, which was ample and cooked well, and — perhaps as should be expected — were the two courses of the meal from the main menu.

Arts & Entertainment, Dance, Theatre

Living Bridges Brings the Circus to Georgetown

There’s great pre-show entertainment at Circus Syzygy’s Living Bridges, a work in progress hosted by Georgetown’s School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts (SANCA) through March 11 (tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets, here). The box office is set up in the middle of a gym full of students learning handstands, aerial work and other skills like those that Syzygy performs with a mix of virtuosity and comedy. The contrast is inspiring.

As with most theatrical events, this performance begins with a preshow reminder about cell phone etiquette, only this announcement quickly turns into the theatrical highlight of the evening. Mick Holsbeke’s clown act, which accompanies the increasingly detailed pre-show instructions, establishes his character as the audience’s on-stage surrogate through whom we’ll experience the show. Just as that character gets comfortable the stage is invaded by acrobats that turn this quiet evening into a turbid scene that suggests The Cat In The Hat. They are a chaotic yet pleasant force, Thing 1 and Thing 2 on Prozac, taking easy pleasure in their acrobatic antics.

While Holsbeke is the production’s most fully defined character, later scenes suggest some degree of character for particular acrobats. Terry Crane pushes this the farthest in a series of bits in which he tenaciously pursues another acrobat. Crane also tends to let the audience see how hard he is working in his aerial work whereas the rest of the troupe maintain the traditional poise of the trade in their acts. The focus feels equally engaging and incongruous: I hope Syzygy will find ways to incorporate it dramatically as the piece develops.

Giulio Lanzaframe also develops some character as he tries on a bit of clowning with a lamp and book, but he impresses more with his juggling and slack line. Holsbeke’s invisible rope act is the best of the clown bits and hints at a journey for his character, who may be fighting back against the interlopers with an earthbound mimicry of Crane’s aerial expertise.

Marie-Eve Dicaire’s hand-balancing act makes upside-down splits look as languid and pleasurable as a yawn and a stretch in the afternoon sun. That she nonchalantly knocks over piles of stones in the process revives the casual anarchy of the initial sequence. Oddly, the rest of the ensemble, who had carefully and somberly piled those stones into a cairn colonnade, seems unmoved by her blithe destruction.

In their trapeze act Ben Wendel and Rachel Nehmer manage to combine professional cool with sensual heat. The driving blues accompaniment and lighting changes didn’t hurt but it takes little more than a look or a touch from these performers to put a sexual charge into the waning minutes of the show.

The run of this show is just getting started, but when it does close the troupe will complete development of the project in Toulouse. You might hold out for the finished production, hoping to find your way to France, but in catching Living Bridges during its SANCA run you only risk a sudden urge to sign up for tightrope walking classes.