Spectating the atmospheric in-betweenness: Peeping Tom
published on ART UNLIMITED 38 (September 2016)
Prolog
A décor built in the emptiness of the stage space; a room defined by its floor and two perpendicular walls. There are numerous doors and a window on the walls. One or two people sitting on the chairs in the empty spaces left in two sides of the décor on the stage. Some of the spotlights are placed in these areas and made a part of the atmosphere that was created on the stage: the ones that watch ‘the scene on the stage’ and we, the audience, who watch both.
When we first encounter this stage under a darkish light when the curtain is raised, a light coming on and off from the pee hole of the door facing us is visibly seen; as if there is someone behind the door and looking at us from the hole. As one moves, the light coming behind her/him goes off and reappears, just like when you look at the neighbor’s door when you are outside in the stair landing and think that there is no one home if there is light from the hole, but if there is a movement in the light you feel you are watched. This is the same strange situation, the same awkward feeling!
Just like the name of the company who creates these works is ‘peeping tom’ which means “watching/peeking” in slang, this work starts with a mise-en-scène that fully fits into their name.
© Herman Sorgeloos. Peeping Tom. À Louer.
I.
It is impossible for a spectator who comes to theater to see a play categorized as ‘dance’ or ‘dance theater’, to define what goes on the stage as dance or dance theatre. The works contain parts with dance and also certain characteristics of dance theatre too. However, it seems that, for its creators, rather than dance choreographies, it is more important to design a choreography to create a certain atmosphere on the stage. Yes, ‘atmosphere’! An atmosphere having the qualities which no one ever thought to create on stage before.
Their inspiration is not a secret of course, especially David Lynch cinema and all the things that those films evoke: a mysterious, weird, surreal and nightmare-like atmosphere. Also recognized elements of B movies of horror. As for the content, it can be associated with Ingmar Bergman cinema: digging the problems in human relations, especially those in the family (between woman-man, parent-child, mother-son, father-son) in such a way to hurt the parties. In terms of stage aesthetic constituted of theatrical situations and fragmented structure Pina Bausch; in terms of the fluidity of choreographic language Alain Platel and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui could be mentioned as muses. So, for whom am I doing this long introduction, whom am I talking about? They are two choreographer-dancers, Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, the founders of Belgium based dance theater company Peeping Tom.
Carrizo and Chartier met while they were working in Les ballets C de la B for the famous Belgian choreographer and orthopedic therapist Alain Platel. In 2000 they founded their own company and gained recognition in Europe especially with the triology consisting of Le jardin (2001) – Le salon (2004) – Le sous sol (2007). In addition to rewards they received with the trilogy, they continued to receive rewards successively and furthermore indulge into new collaborations with famous dance or theatre companies. Their last work Vader (2014) received the first prize of the category ‘Best International Dance Production of 2014’ by the jury of the Premios de la Critica Barcelona, while their previous work 32 rue Vandenbranden (2009) won in the category ‘Best New Dance Production’ a Olivier Award in 2015 in London. In May 2015 they produced a work named The Land with the players of Munich Residenztheater which is one of the prestigious theater companies of Germany. The missing door which was created by Carrizo in 2013 under the umbrella of Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT) 1 which is one of the most important dance groups not only of The Nederlands but also of the world and, the new work of Chartier which he created with the same company were included in the program of 2015-16 season to be performed successively the same night. The lost room has recently been nominated for The Netherlands’ most prestigious dance award, the Zwanen (Swans) as ‘Most Impressive Production in 2016’, which will be announced in coming October during the Festival of the Dutch Dance in Maastricht. It should also be noticed that such an internationally known company like NDT which has lots of world premieres choreographed by such talented artists like its intendants Paul Lightfood and Sol León, and also like Crystal Pite, Gai Behar, Sharon Eyal and Marco Goecke in its programmes every season, hasn’t been nominated in Zwanen for years.
Peeping Tom has been named after Michael Powell’s 1960 famous cult film. The film Peeping Tom which is about tension, murder and mostly ‘peeping’ must have inspired Carrizo and Chartier in creating spooky mediums. Of course being -in a sense- ‘peeped’ by the audience is one of the most important tools affecting the mise-en-scène of the duo. They create disturbed characters who come to life in spooky atmospheres; they deal with hidden oddities in the in-between places of reality and surreality, sometimes by emphasizing them or analyzing them in depth; they surprise and entertain the audience with situations, emotions and materials which are hard to come together.
The dancers of Peeping Tom hold a very special place among dance companies in terms of the use of human body. The movements developed by Carrizo and Chartier, who are dancers and performed in their early pieces as well, through their personal capabilities, have no boundaries in terms of the shapes the body takes like complete convulsion; inversion of the limbs of the body as if they are not connected to each other; twisting the arms and bewildering angles of feet especially through the tricks with wrists.
The cast of the works that Carrizo and Chartier stage with their company involves approximately 6-7 people; if they collaborate with other companies they could use a larger cast. One other thing is that not all of these performers are dancers; there are actors and singers among them. Another characteristic of their company is that there is no age limit for the performers, which include the ones at the age of 80 and the ones who are very young. In these approaches Carrizo and Chartier could have been inspired by Pina Bausch who was one of the first choreographers who worked with not only dancers but also actors and musicians, and who also stretched the attitude on age limit.
© Rahi Rezvani. Nederlands Dans Theater 1. The missing door by Gabriela Carrizo.
Intermezzo
In the programme titled Start Again by NDT 1, there is no ‘break’ between 30-minute The missing door of Carrizo and 40-minute The lost room of Chartier as the rule of thumb in this kind of programmes presenting two or three works in one night, is to give one. Two works were subjected to a different procedure; they were connected to each other without giving a break with the most creative ‘transition’ mise-en-scène I have ever seen.
Both works are set in a room, which, although look like each other in terms of their dimensions, differ in terms of wall and flooring materials and furniture.
After Carrizo’s The missing door was completed, the curtain falls, however it quickly opens again. When it gets open, we see that the dancers begin to change the stage. As a spotlight which sweeps the stage like a loose cannon falls on dancers, that dancer stops and salutes the audience and gets applauded. Even after the salutation of seven dancers which overlap with the light, the procedure of changing the scene continues.
Stage-change in front of the audience, without concealment and technicians appearing during the performance as if there is no audience on the ‘other side’ of the stage, are especially ordinary in Pina Bausch’s oeuvre. This, most probably inspired by Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, is one of Bausch’s hallmarks. However, the difference in Carrizo and Chartier’s mise-en-scène is that the décor was changed by the dancers in their costumes rather than the stage personnel. Those who roll the carpet that complement the floor of the previous work and unravel the carpet of the next work; those who remove the walls of the previous work and carry them backstage and install the walls for the next one; those who carry stage accessories and furniture to the stage are the dancers.
Another unprecedented choice of mise-en-scène is that Chartier’s The lost room doesn’t start immediately after the décor is installed. In the new décor which looks like a hotel room, two dancers who is dressed up one as housekeeper and the other as a personnel manager checks the stage design. When the manager leaves the stage, the housekeeper takes out a drink from the fridge, picks a magazine from the table, sits on the bed and starts to enjoy herself. When the manager suddenly comes back to the room, the housekeeper hastily pulls herself together, checks the rooms once more, neatens the bed on which she sat and leaves the stage. Just at that time the lights are dimmed, we hear the music which started the first work -that of Carrizo’s- again. Light percolates from the peeping hole of one of the doors like blinking. When stage lights are turned on again, we understand that the new work actually starts: the door is opened and one of the protagonists enter inside.
By using the dancers not only as the protagonists but also as supporting characters and especially as stage technicians; by dividing the stage space into two: the part with the décor and the part outside of it; and by designing this transition mise-en-scène with a perfectly prepared choreography; Carrizo and Chartier astound, as the phrase goes, they perplex the audience in this indecisive world where they invite the audience.
© Rahi Rezvani. Nederlands Dans Theater 1. The lost room by Franck Chartier.
II.
In works of Peeping Tom: who is dead, who is alive, who is a djinn; who is good, who is evil; are the events expressed in a linear line or in zig zags; are the situations a reality, a dream or a nightmare; are the situations ‘happening’ in this world or in after-death; what kind of relationships are there between the protagonists; who is related to who; are the youth and the senility of the same protagonist played on the stage at the same time; why are the protagonists this much weird and disturbed; everything on the stage seems surreal, so why then the actors call each other by their real names? Carrizo and Chartier doesn’t give any answer to these questions; they let everything ambiguous.
The works of Peeping Tom are full of those who disappear and show up behind the doors; those who curl up their bodies like an elastic ghost that came out from cartoons; those who bend their arms, hands, feet and limbs; those who ‘float’ in the air in a superhuman way; those who can be here and there at the same time; those who disappear in the bed or in a couch; those who -if not lost- shrunk in the couch; those who come out of the bed; those who get lost in a side table of a bed.
The doors open and close by themselves; a woman comes out of the man sitting on the couch; a man and pieces of paper scatter into the door which is opened by the wind; a built-in cabinet appears behind when the door, which had just opened to a hollow space, is reopened; cabinets that keep lots of people who were stuck in them and fall out when its doors are opened; appliques that move along the walls on their own, wiping cloths escaping from the hands of their users; the figure in the painting on the wall comes to life; men which are in black suits and on four legs disperse behind the couches like cockroaches; a pregnant not-so-young women sooths the baby with the head of an adult who is crying under -yes, under- the caravan in the snow, and pushes it back to the snow; a young couple gets off the caravan, it seems that the woman wants to leave the man but she cannot, they entangle to each other, hit each other and then cuddle each other, they are the two halves of a part but they cannot fit together; a middle-aged lady whose profession in real life is a mezzo-soprano singer, performs Bellini’s Casta diva and after a while Pink Floyd’s Shine on you crazy diamond alive at the same level of mastery. In the works of Peeping Tom none of these are found odd.
Carrizo and Chartier prefer to narrate stories which don’t reveal themselves easily, loosely woven with vast emptiness; in fact there isn’t mostly even a clear-cut story. Their works include fragments that allow the audience to make up their own stories through ‘peeping’, and of course an atmospheric whole consisting of those fragments. This is such a dark atmosphere which doesn’t lack humor and irony, where however an intensive spookiness, a weird uneasiness, and a melancholic loneliness prevails.
© Herman Sorgeloos. Peeping Tom. 32 rue Vandenbranden.
Epilog
While watching a work of Peeping Tom as a spectator, you enter in a world, in an atmosphere which you don’t easily encounter on stage. In the course of time that world absorbs you; you spent time there, you get lost, you get shivers and you are astounded. So much that, when it is over, you don’t even want to get out of your seat feeling awestruck. Often madly applauses and most of the audience who sink in their seats and don’t want to get up when the lights are on, indicate that you aren’t the only one feeling that way.
Peeping Tom deserves to be peeked!
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