Samuel Sims
Deep within some of the most beautiful woodland North London has, I was to sit through my first ever aerial show by one of the world’s most energetic, boundary-pushing and challenging companies, Scarabeus. Or so I thought.
For over two decades Scarabeus has had a reputation for creating “beautiful, compelling and spectacular shows that sees them drawing on a range of visual, physical theatre and circus styles, responding dramatically to the place and location where it is performed”. Here, in La Tempesta, based loosely on Shakespeare’s The Tempest I saw absolutely nothing to back up this wonderful reputation and left feeling somewhat confused.
The show is aimed at everyone from two-years-old upwards, though I dare anyone older than two to enjoy La Tempesta. The setting is beautiful, lost deep in the woods, surrounded by large, overbearing trees that create a wonderful atmosphere. Two platforms lie on either side of the audience, comprising mostly of teeny tiny children and their parents who are all directed to sit on a sheet atop the muddy ground. One platform hosts the ‘human’ performers and the other, their puppet counterparts who, at regular intervals mirror the actions done by the aerial artists, Beatrice Perini, Antoine Marc and Willow Vidal-Hall. The story tells of a family whose house has been swept away by a flood and their bed and a few treasured possessions are all that remain. Perini (the mother), Marc (father) and Vidal-Hall (daughter) spend the entire time falling about clumsily, doing very little aerial work and looking out to the audience with disoriented, creepy faces. They speak only when randomly jumping off their platform and ordering the audience to pass along flowerpots so as to not get ruined in the ‘storm’. Other interactions include members of the creative team placing a large blue sheet over us, pretending it is the sea, which admittedly the children here enjoyed tremendously and I know I would have loved at their age. The puppets created by Little Angel theatre looked uncannily like the performers but they didn’t make very good use of the set/ location.
The location of La Tempesta is just perfect and I do not understand why it was not used more fully. The aerial artists could have perhaps used the trees to show us some impressive moves, or travelled across and above our heads, rather than staying rooted to the spot and doing very little. One scene sees the daughter fall through the bed and into the sea, where we see a shark approach, however there is no interaction or danger element from the performers and I feel like, as with so much of the show, more could have been done, especially to involve the children, who are an absolutely invaluable audience to have.
La Tempesta is a big disappointment, especially after researching Scarabeus and seeing glimpses of what they are capable of. This is certainly not going to appeal to the whole family, that is, unless you like large dogs as a golden retriever ran riot through the audience mid show, causing absolute chaos. Probably the highlight for me.
La Tempesta is playing in Queens Wood, Highgate until Sunday 18 August. For more information and tickets, see the Scarabeus website.