Against Gravity: Aims to Delight

Staged at the Havana Theatre, this unusual show is created by a girl moving various illustrated transparencies above an overhead projector, while, with the other hand, manipulating 2-D figures (a form of shadow puppets, which are usually behind a screen) above the transparencies.   Only a few people sitting in the front row can see how this is done, so the focus of course is on what we see on the big screen.   The pictures are supported in two ways.   A second girl plays a guitar, with the audience supplying sounds (a hiss, engine noise), which were enthusiastically provided.   Inventive and ingenious.

*SPOILER ALERT* (You may not wish to keep reading if you want this show to be a surprise!) 

The first half-hour might be labelled "adventures of a human," walking, swimming, falling, arriving in a city.   The last ten minutes has the girl in front of the screen, holding a big cardboard heart on which the other appears to stick-pen different colours - make what you will of this.

Picking up on the title, the figure (gender unclear) suffers from gravity, falling off a cliff more than once, then downstairs.   A snail (where did it come from?) has only to flip a lever, and gravity is off, and a police car flies.   To be solemn, we are shown the power of narrative: a shark bites off the human's leg, with a lot of blood.   Time is then reversed (just as easily as gravity can be) and, second time round, he (if it's a he) swims fast enough to escape the fish.

I had to turn to their website to discover the performers' names, Chloe Ziner and Jessica Gabriel.   They have worked together for ten years and explore "the interconnectedness between what is natural, what is artificial, and where everything blurs in between."   Some may scoff at Against Gravity as a whimsical, inconsequential trifle.   As the sole aim is to delight, more are likely to be delighted.