9 Comments

1. Barbara Dooley on July 22, 2017 at 4:18 pm

   Fringe does offer arts experiences for almost every taste. Sometimes, however, there are pieces or performances that are so extraordinary that you think about them for years afterward. I still remember performances I saw at the NY Fringe 25 years ago, and Fringe friends here and I often reminisce about the great things we have seen in Kansas City.

   Liminal Space: A Traveler’s Guide is one of those shows. Directors Heidi Van and Logan Black’s curtain speech put a little guidebook in audience hands. Then comes 50 minutes of riveting theater.

   I have never been in performance space where the silence was so complete you could, truly, hear any extraneous sound. The audience attention was rapt. The performers’ movements, with the exception of a few purposeful exhalations, was completely silent, even to the movement of the props, three long benches.

   The live instrumental music changed frequently and surrounded both the performers and audience in a way that erased the boundary between performers and audience.

   Van and Black, with their talented performers, have managed something unique and, for me, sublime. The appropriate adjective is “awe” in its original sense–wonder mixed with fear, as in relations to the supernatural. The “liminal space” is somewhere between the sacred and the unholy. Life always dancing with the knowledge of death. The individual in isolation yet always in community.

   This is beautiful, innovative work. Don’t miss it if you have a chance to see it.

   
   
   
2. Jim on July 24, 2017 at 3:02 pm

   This show is not for the “Faint of Art”. If you’re looking for lighthearted entertainment, this isn’t the piece. The concept of liminal states was intriguing. Thanks to the creative team for explaining what they were trying to do with the play at the beginning, that was very worthwhile. The grace one would expect from dancers movements was deliberately pushed off track. This was further accentuated by the stark bright LED hand spot lights on the dancers and sometimes into the crowd. The music created a similar background of support. I left relaxed and thoughtful.

   
   
   
3. J H on July 26, 2017 at 2:50 am

   Lose yourself in this captivating movement piece. Extraordinary. The performers were messmerizing. Van and Black must take this on the road!

   
   
   
4. Mac on July 26, 2017 at 4:10 am

   A convulsion of thought, a confusion of state, a convoluted explanation of the way a body prefers to move: this piece is a manifestation of what played in my mind during the best sex I’ve ever had.

   
   
   
5. Luke on July 26, 2017 at 1:17 pm

   You know when you wake up knowing you’ve had a dream, but don’t remember what it was? That escaped dream gestated to form this dance routine. Performed to incredible live music, the dance was mesmerizing but maybe too abstract for some. It’s like watching the choreography for a magic act, but without the illusions. I felt sore just watching the dancers.

   
   
   
6. Erdin on July 26, 2017 at 6:28 pm

   This wordless journey lives in the bravery and strength it takes to take a step. The precision of the movement drew me in moment by moment. It is both meditative and cathartic and grounded in a dynamic dream-like soundscape. The experience feels like a gift.

   
   
   
7. Christina on July 28, 2017 at 10:11 pm

   Super committed performers made this performance one to watch. Not one I would go back to see, necessarily, because it’s not always a comfortable experience, but it does make you think and appreciate the task at hand. well done to everyone involved.

   
   
   
8. Linda Medoff on July 30, 2017 at 2:13 am

   It was so bad I prayed for the sweet relief of unconsciousness, but sadly couldn’t get there, remaining in the liminal state of desire for escape from that experience. Please Heidi, we aren’t in a nuclear war, but that would have been a better explanation of what this piece was trying to evoke.

   
   
   
9. Athena Horton on July 30, 2017 at 3:01 am

   This was the best piece of amateur theatre I have seen in a long time. A visceral experience.