Phos: A Review

It’s magic, but it’s no trick. With Phos, his most conventionally theatrical piece since Corps noir (2008), choreographer Stéphane Gladyszewski keeps playing with technology and offers us the most standout work of the first half of Festival TransAmériques.

Phos, photo by Stéphane Gladyszewski

Yes, Gladyszewski does invoke magic by concealing bodies in darkness, like when Martin Bélanger’s arms appear out of nothingness from behind a strip of light and float in the air. The image recalls Brice Leroux’s Quantum-Quintet (FTA, 2007) and Cindy Van Acker’s Obtus (FTA, 2011). Half-seen, the movement becomes inexplicable. Lights in the sky are a familiar sight; it’s only when they move in unexpected ways that we suspect alien life. It’s for this reason that I’m less convinced by the voice work of the performers, decidedly too human.

For the most part, however, Gladyszewski uses technology to reveal what is always there but which usually goes unseen. Such is the case with cameras that reveal the heat patterns of the human body and of the liquids it comes in contact with. Suddenly, it’s like we’ve entered a psychedelic world where the human body is turned inside out, a world of tie-dye souls and auras as moving skins. The body becomes as malleable as playdough, liquefies before our very eyes. We are witness to the com/motion of the dis/embodied internal. Our bodies are haunted by spirits whose life force is muffled by their shells. It’s otherworldly, yet the internal landscape laid before us is so recognizable that I was tempted to scream, “This is the real world! The world where our bodies appear to be solid is obviously a lie!”

And I was completely sober. That’s why you should see Phos.

May 28-31
Place des Arts – Studio O Vertigo
www.fta.qc.ca
514.844.3822
Tickets: 29$ / 30 years old and under: 23$