Studies in Motion - The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge: hauntingly beautiful
Occasionally, a live theatre piece is so physically and visually stunning that I cannot imagine a better medium for presenting beauty. *Studies in Motion* by the "Electric Company":http://www.electriccompanytheatre.com/ is one of those pieces. The play is an explosive collision of theatre, dance and multimedia centered on historical figure Eadweard Muybridge, a late 19th century photographer who captured the beauty of animals and humans frozen in time.
Written by Kevin Kerr and directed by Kim Collier, the piece tackles both the life and the work of the eccentric Muybridge. With respect to his scientific and artistic work – the investigation through photography of animal and human locomotion – the play reached great heights. The first scene alone made the price of admission worthwhile. A grid of light projected onto the floor. Men and women, some naked while others clothed, crossed the stage – walking, running, jumping – moments of movement illuminated by light, as if stilled into short time elements. This scene stylistically depicted Muybridge’s investigative pursuit: how to use photography to show sequences of movement.
Muybridge obsessively conducted experimentations to understand motion. He used multiple cameras to capture moment-by-moment movement, such as a horse galloping, a man falling down, a woman convulsing or an animal heart beating. His work, which grew into a collection of over 700 sequences of animals and humans in motion, was the precursor to motion pictures.
Studies in Motion did an excellent job of exposing the audience to how Muybridge saw and captured movement. A moment that stood out for me was the simple image of a man hammering. The light went off as a series of flashbulbs, illuminating a succession of actors each
frozen in a different stage of the hammering action. There were other gems: choreographer Crystal Pite’s movement sequences performed by the large and talented cast, stark images of light and dark in the black-and-white projections and an original score by composer Patrick Pennefather.
While *Studies in Motion* could be considered a multimedia masterpiece, the narrative of Muybridge’s life – which included cuckoldry, murder, an insanity plea and an orphaned child – felt lacking. It is easy to imagine the potential of such a story for theatre, yet neither the story nor characters felt developed to their full extent. While Andrew Wheeler is superb as Muybridge and I believed I was watching the old genius himself on stage taking photos of his subjects and arguing over publishing ownership, I would have liked to have seen the relationship between the characters explored to a greater depth. I felt as if the play allowed me to see and understand Muybridge the scientist, not Muybridge the man. There seems to be potential for more, to bring humanity to a story that explores the theme of what it is to be human and how we use images to find this meaning.
Despite this, I am glad that there was a story within the production, that *Studies in Motion* examined Muybridge’s personal life rather than concentrating only on the aesthetic value of his work. It was immensely satisfying to walk out of the theatre feeling that not only did I feast on an amazing visual performance of light and dark, movement and stillness, but to feel that I learned about the history of a person who helped to shape the world as I see it.
_Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge is produced by Electric Company Theatre. Written by Kevin Kerr, directed by Kim Collier, presented by the Vancouver Playhouse. For more information go_ "here":http://www.vancouverplayhouse.com/current-season/2008/studies-in-motion.php
_Studies in Motion is on tour, in Calgary, presented by Alberta Theatre Projects, April 21 - May 9 2009; and in Montreal at Festival Transameriques, May 28 - 30 2009._