In Performance: Song / RANTERS THEATRE at COIL16 Festival

Song / RANTERS THEATRE (Australia)

NEW OHIO THEATRE
154 Christopher Street; New York, NY, United States

TUE JAN 5, 8:00 PM
WED JAN 6, 7:30 PM
THU JAN 7, 5:00 PM
FRI JAN 8, 4:00 PM & 9:00 PM

Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets:
Ticket Price: $20 / $15 Students & Seniors

Song is a lot of things: a transcendent aural experience, a group meditation, the best nap room ever. Exactly what you get out of this (performance? installation? happening?) depends on how you come to it and how susceptible you are to dozing off while lying in a dimly lit room on a bunch of blankets and pillows. And in fact, it’s not at all clear that a catnap isn’t tacitly encouraged. The space feels so comforting, so warm, so safe, that you might imagine you’re back in the womb floating alongside one-hundred future siblings. Song’s power lies in its ability to tap into a sense of the primordial. It wraps you in a transportive soundscape of rushing water and whirring insects, bathes you in the reflected glow of a luminescent orb suspended in space, surrounds you with bodies in repose. That this sense of communion—constructed though it may be—feels so fresh is itself an unsettling reminder of the things missing from our contemporary lives. For all its comforts, Song is also an uncomfortable reminder that we can’t return to our origins. Reviewed by Kevin Ramser (Regional Editor)

Photo: Jorge Lizalde