Fringe NYC 2015
Still Life with Apples
Sarah Blush/ Ali Perkins
Genre: Mime
Venue: The Celebration of Whimsy
Festival: Fringe NYC
Low Down
45 minutes of movement theatre…with apples…and a few grapefruits. Steamy, smart, and seductive. Great for date-night.
Review
What is art? What is love? What is being human?
We ask these questions a lot. Especially in the arts. And we answer them a lot. In Still Life with Apples, we find ourselves faced with these questions again as if we are wondering for the first time. This beautiful movement theatre piece directed by Sarah Blush with choreography by Ali Perkins is a breath of fresh air. A beautiful blend of the familiar and the new, we visit common themes from a new, but somehow familiar angle.
In this 45 minute whirlwind of a show, the ensemble of 6 actors flawlessly breaks down love, humanity, and art to their simplest elements. At the top of the show the actors are isolated, not necessarily seeing each other, but certainly having the same experiences– experiences in love that most of us will recognize from our own lives. As the actors shed their bright red outer layer of clothing the words fade and we are left with only movement and bodies to tell their stories– to answer our questions. And they do so flawlessly.
As the show progressed I found my own reactions to the work on stage to be more and more physical. As they relaxed and found comfort in each other, I relaxed and found comfort in them. As they found tension, so did I. Physical contact is powerful, vulnerable, and so very telling. Still Life with Apples is an extremely effective example of movement theatre and its storytelling power.
This show is raw, provocative, and cleverly crafted in great detail. Blush and Perkins make a fantastic team and their cast was simply outstanding. I’ll be watching for more collaborations from them in the future.
