DISTURBO | Bare Legs Circus
A masterclass in atmospheric ambience, our entry to DISTURBO has all senses firing at their highest. A darkened warehouse, a warning to follow our cheerful guide closely, and watch your step. We enter a cavernous space, an industrial space. It has the feeling that is unused. This is not a space where machines are made or animals dismembered or boxes packed. It is also not disused. It has a cleanliness, not sterile, just a sense of the liminal, of being in-between, of waiting.
Image: Finn Mullen. Cover image: Matt Black.
And so we wait. The lone torchlight is switched off. The room silent. That huge hum you get in your ears when all your sensory organs are straining for data. And finally, a light glimpsed through walls. And a body, approaching from the dark behind.
DISTURBO is a striking exploration of self-revelation and relationship, of queer embodiment and emancipation. I am going to throw it into the ring of New Circus, an uncategorizable cacophony of circus skills, drag, kitsch, acrodance, movement, storytelling, music, mime, and physical theatre.
So many elements of creepiness, clanging distant scraping noises, swinging lights that click on and off, shadowed bodies walking through quarter light. And yet, for all that, a safe place, a place of warmth and exploration and welcome. A place where you will be challenged but not threatened.
The combination of massive venue, stark lighting, cold voluminous air, ASMR influenced soundtrack; all these elements fed into a wildly kinaesthetic experience. Although we did not traverse the space, we were not interacting in the traditional sense of an immersive space, the gratuitous use of atmosphere had my body on high alert.
A restraint was shown in the use of props and tricks with selected skills, effects and spatial elements being used merely once. Which is always enjoyable. Rather than flog a trick to boredom, so much more intriguing to use it just for the right purpose, to use it just to amplify, emphasise.
In the story I found an exploration of revelation. It posed many questions… What is it we share we others, how much do we dare to bare, how much do we want to, how much are we able. Our two performers are wandering in darkness, ostensibly alone, but as they reveal themselves to us, I see that they are known to each other, although their relationship is complex, intricate, multidimensional. It has a history that existed before the audience was privy to view it. What I saw was a careful transfer of power, between each other, backwards and forwards, each time taking that power and transforming it and returning it with a new lesson. Assumptions of who is alpha and beta were invariably inverted.
In this I saw dynamics that are more intrinsically part of the queer romantic relationship palette. Hetero romantic relationships also are allowed access to the same palette, but invariably they are limited, with less finesse, less acceptance, more rigidity of role, more cultural pigeon holing. There is a freedom I have observed within lgbtiqx+ relationships that allows space for greater relational expression.
Image: Finn Mullen.
It made me think of the dance of passive, aggressive, submissive, active and so forth, that takes place in a relationship. There is a fallacy that an active, dominant person leads a relationship; actually, there is a power in patience, in acquiescence, in stillness. Water that freezes can shatter granite. An endless breeze will bend branches permanently. There is a fallacy that only one person can be or is, active, protagonist, prime. Relationships are so much more complicated than that. We are so much more complicated than that. To be solid is to be secure and powerful, or it can be rigidity to the point of entrapment. Active seekers of the limelight may only be comfortable if wearing a costume when the spotlight points at them. Unmasked, they may not be so powerful in headlights. Or as our initially resistant unmasker showed us, perhaps they are delighted, aroused, exultant when finally free of the mask. I talk in dichotomies, as a critic, juxtaposition is my most called upon tool. But humans are not two-dimensional, we are multi-faceted creatures that exist across more than eleven dimensions, including time, including memory, including society, including community, including whatever makes up a family, including lovers. A relationship is the least static element of our existence, and exploring its infinite hues is what makes a relationship worth having.
Ultimately, what I saw was a love letter. A dynamic, queer, dark, visceral, physical poem. A love letter to self, and to those that we trust to enter our selves. It makes you want to rush out and make mad evocative dystopian art with your lover. What a beautiful trip.
Read our interview with Disturbo creator Jay Radford here.
