Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – James Thierrée’s dark physical and visual spectacle TABAC ROUGE dazzles at BAM

• By drediman
• October 5, 2015
• No Comments

Yesterday afternoon, I trekked to Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood to attend a performance of James Thierrée’s latest physical spectacle entitled Tabac Rouge. I’ve greatly admired James Thierrée and his company Compagnie du Hanneton’s work over the years – their Bright Abyss and Farewell Umbrella remain benchmark theatergoing experiences for me. If his latest piece fails to create the same effortlessly wondrous – and more accessible – dreamscapes of his previous works, it’s a starker, more personal piece that seduces with its melancholy and darkly mischievous spirit. Tabac Rouge is a slow-burning depiction of a man’s (played by Thierrée himself) psychological fears and frustrations and his herculean effort to, in Sondheim’s words, break through to something new. As such, Tabac Rouge makes an unlikely companion piece to Preludes, Dave Malloy’s musical fantasia on Rachmaninoff’s writer’s block that played New York a few months ago. Here, Thierrée’s protagonists (is he?) struggles are breathtakingly depicted via a series of haunted, phantasmagorical visions.

In terms of sheer theatrical spectacle, few can match Thierrée (he’s credited with the show’s direction, set design, and choreography). He is an artist who knows how to use the entire proscenium as his canvas. Every inch of the stage (depth, width, height, and beyond) is fair game, making for some extraordinary stage pictures. His vision for Tabac Rouge is something out of a Mad Max film; the ever-shifting sets, lighting, and costumes (by Victoria Thierrée, James’s mother, as well as Charlie Chaplin’s daughter and Eugene O’Neill’s granddaughter!) all come together to vividly create a bleak and violently apocalyptic landscape that seems to be on the verge of collapsing in on itself (literally and figuratively). The company of nine was extraordinary – each member brought their own remarkable physical gifts to the table while seamlessly working as a single organism to tell the story. The climax of the piece, in which a monolithic wall was assaulted by the company, barbarically destroyed, and cathartically transformed into its antithesis was truly a sight to behold – not only as spectacle, but as beautifully articulated dramatic imagery.

Yesterday’s matinee was allegedly the last-ever performance of Tabac Rouge. The show’s retirement resulted in an exultant yet bittersweet extended curtain call that was moving to see. Ah, the ephemeral, effervescent nature of live performance – here to day, gone tomorrow!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

TABAC ROUGE
Off-Broadway, Physical Theater/Dance
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
1 hour, 30 minutes (with no intermission)
Closed