(Kath Papas Productions)

Of Frogs

(Journal)
Published – 07.09.2022
(Writing)

If you walk down by a river on a quiet day, when children aren’t running and dogs aren’t barking and barbeques have been paused for a time, you may close your eyes and realise there is no such thing as a hushed time in nature. It may surprise that you are surrounded by movement, by organisms going about /their/day, with no thought for you and your disruption. When you shut your eyes, you can hear the rush of the water; the buzz of insects; the rustle of wind through grass; the swoosh of falling leaves. Perhaps you consider how to transport these ambient but invigorating noises back to your desk, consider how to carry these moments of calm into your everyday life. Perhaps you can: in a small black box theatre off a busy high street, sitting circled around three musicians, four large containers of water, and a collection of ephemera - goblets, branches, cymbals, pipes. Of Frogs allows you to lose yourself and your sense of time as you encounter the sounds of the river while watching what seems like an extended movement improvisation. The three performers use the entire space as if they are traversing no space at all; they are like dancers moving seamlessly through choreography, or perhaps, to extend the metaphor, like the gentle bending of the trees dipping their branches in and out of the water. The exploration and experimentation of sound is at the fore - each musician becomes part of each instrument they encounter, whether found or existing, allowing their bodies to become part of the sound making. I lean forward almost out of my seat to watch the water tip, swirl under the gentle hands of a musician, and am met with an invitation - eyes meeting mine, a smile, a breaking of whatever wall I have come to expect, an intimacy that is rare in this context. We, the small audience, feel as if we are down by that river, the musicians the behind-the-scenes creators of the sounds we are surrounded by. The whole work feels like an invitation: to let go, to listen, to re-engage. We walk out blinking into the cool sunlight, ready to experience the world anew.

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