Pas Perdus

Event: Pas Perdus
Series: Flipside 2011 (an ‘Esplanade Presents’ festival in conjunction with The Singapore Arts Festival)
Performed by: Les Argonautes (Belgium)
Dates: 23 – 25 May 2011
Venue: Esplanade Theatre Studio

Are you lost in a world of rigid routine? Where a maze leads you round and round? “Pas Perdus” or “Not Lost” (in French) teaches you to move those walls and brings you through the lighter side of life full of creativity and improvisation.

4 people seemingly captive (in an asylum?) among wooden walls of infinite possibilities display amazing skill of juggling, balancing, music, precision…one could not keep his/her eyes off the “tricks” they were doing even amidst the constant reminder of a booming “Calm…Calm…Calm”.

Juggling whatever they had on hand, cuboid blocks, balls, etc., balancing big wooden walls (as above) and balancing on them, as well as redefining the way you play music. Balls are manipulated over the body even as they played pool using themselves. There was a point when the ball was simply moved across the floor with just a tap on the ground (probably some special flooring). And there were the leaning wooden wall blocks as well as balancing each on only 1 short edge. They had to be really precise and have a good feel of the materials as well as good calculations of how to balance humans as well as huge objects. There was one part when 1 of them “climbed” to balance his whole body on stilts. This was very dangerous because any wrong move and he’ll fall and hurt himself, or even be poked by the stilts.

And I was also impressed by their multi-talented display. They could play various instruments as well, like the violin, saxophone, trumpet and drums and in fun ways, e.g hitting the drum from 2-3 metres away by bouncing drumsticks off the drums. And if you’ve heard of piano four-hands, well, here you have violin four-hands! It’s the 1st time I’d seen something like that. Having learnt the violin when I was small, this left 1 of the deepest impressions for me during the show.

It’s a bit difficult to describe everything. You’ve got to see it to experience it.