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In theory, ‘Depart’ sounds thrilling. It’s an immersive show by Australian circus troupe Circa, performed amongst the graves and thickets of Tower Hamlets Cemetery. In reality, it’s a mixed bag.
The audience are walked around the graveyard in groups to witness a variety of spectacles performed by gymnasts dressed in nude tones, like they’re models for Kanye West at AW16. The performances add up to a show that explores themes of death and the afterlife, without reflecting any of the history of the cemetery itself. Real gravestones feel like props. We could probably have done without artists literally dancing on people’s graves.
But while some of the sequences are disappointing, others are genuinely breath-taking. The highlight for me was a sequence in which two men used sheer strength to lift and spin themselves up and over each other. The routine was one of the few moments throughout the show where there was a real sense of exhilaration in the audience, and story on stage.
Elsewhere, performers’ faces where kept blank and movements were so manicured that any excitement about the danger of their gymnastics fizzled out. Enforced audience silence didn’t help this. Without a backdrop of gasps and ‘wow’s you couldn’t feel the awe of the people around you.
The silence also didn’t help with the show’s main flaw: the fact that it feels like you’re trudging around the graveyard on a school trip. Organisation issues meant that groups often crossed paths confusingly, and paths felt overcrowded. There were also long periods of walking through the mud in the dark.
I’m not sure the spirits of cemetery are going to welcome their new visitors, and I don’t blame them.
Part of LIFT. Check out what else is going on at LIFT 2016