STEPS : Play Dead
PEOPLE WATCHING
The Circus of Everyday Life
With its very first production Play Dead, the young Canadian circus company People Watching has achieved resounding success.
A living room thrown into chaos, flying plates, a bottomless cupboard, stories that interlock: in Play Dead, the Montreal collective People Watching present a surreal chronicle of everyday life. In a completely ordinary interior, six artists – who have previously worked with Cirque du Soleil, The 7 Fingers, or Circa – combine acrobatics, dance, and physical theatre to reveal unexpected contours of cohabitation. Couch flips, improbable slides, and everyday life itself are transformed into performance.
The premise of Play Dead was envisioned during the first lockdown. Four of the artists engaged in various creative explorations within the limited space of their homes. As a result, the set design reflects a domestic environment. They experienced this imposed break as the end of youthful carefreeness and a “moment of awareness about our relationship to friendship, love, death, and the fragility of it all.”
As part of Steps, Migros Culture Percentage Dance Festival
