By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer
Le Cris des Méduses is a 19th century romantic painting come to life through choreography and art direction by Alan Lake Factori(e). An interpretation of French romantic painter Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (1819), the haunting performance featured nine dancers whose bodies are used as independent vessels intertwining and coming together to create a single unit. The painting depicts a shipwreck and a cluster of bodies struggling to survive adrift. The interpretation, performed at the Vancouver Playhouse on January 27 and 28, highlights the interconnected components of life and death.
The theatre was hazy with a fog-like smoke that drifted from the stage and over the audience. What initially struck me about this production was the foreboding music that transported the audience to a tragic scene. Dressed in distressed street clothes, dancers emerged from behind a large wooden wall that rotated to reveal other dancers in different positions. The set design was minimal, consisting of wooden structures that the dancers climbed and balanced on. These multi-use structures were also used to transport the dancers across the stage and later became canvases splattered with paint.
The performance art captures the juxtaposing attributes of vulnerability and strength demonstrated through both the physical act of dancing and stylistic visual elements. In several scenes, the dancers are nude. The nudity in this performance is not of an overtly sexual or provocative nature, focusing less on sex appeal but on the natural elements of the human body both alone and with others. It was compelling to watch how deliberate movements worked to showcase human fragility.
I interpreted this dance as a statement about the dynamics of the human experience, with an emphasis on suffering. Once I learned Géricault’s painting was behind the inspiration of Lake’s choreography, I began to connect the images in the performance to the artwork. Something about the imagery of the shipwreck, corpses brought back to life through dance, and eerie percussion transported me to this scene. It beckoned me to consider the ways through which humans have endured suffering historically and in present society. The performance allows for the audience to reflect on how mutual support can help guide us through the trials and triumphs of life.
