Inventive, immersive In Time truly engages the senses

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2021 (1757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not often you can say a smell contributes to your enjoyment of theatre.

But In Time, a production by End of the West Collective presented by Theatre Projects, is a strange and marvellous creature that, over the course of an unusual hour-long performance held at Prairie Theatre Exchange, takes its audience into three worlds, each with its own esthetic, perspective and yes, even smell.

Each tells a different iteration of the same story: Janus, the two-faced god of doorways — one face looking to the past, the other to the future — has been charged by Destiny with creating a Universal Opening.

A traveller (you) interrupts his work — startled, he shows you the fears of the past in an attempt to scare you off.

When that fails, he tries to lure you with the temptation of the future, to no avail. But then the veil between human and mortal is pierced, Janus’s new present-facing face is revealed and a portal is opened.

The performances — all wordless, movement-based pieces — are one-on-one; you are given a number upon entry and told to wait until you are beckoned. When it’s your turn, black-suited concierges — vaguely terrifying with their shiny, featureless masks and ramrod-straight posture — usher you into a room where you share a brief (about four minutes) but potent interaction with a god. (Warning to those who shy away from interactive theatre: there will be eye contact.)

When the story has been told, the concierge takes you back to the lobby, where there’s live music and wine to engage you while you wait for your next encounter.

There’s a smidge too much downtime between stagings — they are are so dreamlike and intense that it’s almost jarring to come out into the light afterward — but that’s a quibble in what is otherwise a weird, thrilling experience that would be spoiled by too much description.

Director Jacqueline Loewen’s rendition of the tale is set in the hollow of a tree trunk, and the scent of wood shavings on the ground make it feel like entering an animal’s lair. Eric Blais and Victoria Emilie Hill are Janus, crowned with crow-like beaks. The veil between god and human is a literal screen on which shadows dance and puppets play (Scott Henderson’s lighting is key here).

Avinash (Nash) Muralidharan Pillai Saralakumari’s piece is based in the traditions of Bharatanatyam dance. Set on a stage filled with sand, this iteration is perhaps the simplest but most affecting, with the expressive Nash relying on the narrative powers of his movements.

Architect David Thomas’s version is, not surprisingly, the most architectural of the three. The concierge parts paper curtains to admit you to a “cave” filled with white stone outcroppings, where dancer Waawaate Fobister takes you through time until Destiny (Kelsey Kanatan Wavey) arrives with a gasp-worthy theatrical flourish.

Heather Lee Brereton’s costumes are beautifully primal, incorporating fur, feather and a kind of carapace, with Nash’s particularly unsettling bird head mimicking the way owls rotate their heads.

This forward-looking production is a breath of fresh air.

jill.wilson@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @dedaumier