Tmesis

Tmesis Theatre Company
Unity Theatre (28th-29th May 2009)

Reviewed by Megan Agnew

Lights dim and the set is in shadow; two figures appear, rolling around the stage in costumes which make them look remarkably like giant sausages. I search for meaning and explanation, but suddenly find myself lost in the movements, mesmerised by the continual pulls, sways and realignments of the actors.

Tmesis (‘Tuh-me-sis’) is the first piece of ‘Physical Theatre’, by Tmesis Theatre Company, starring Yorgos Karamalegos and Elinor Randle. An abstract and innovative approach to story telling, the play combines movement and acrobatics with a soulful exploration of the human relationship. Based on Aristophanes’ speech from Plato’s Symposium, Tmesis re-delivers a tragicomic tale about the origins of love and the search for an ‘other half’.

Karamalegos and Randle display extraordinary talent and make each touch so electrifying that the later separation causes real discomfort to the viewer. As the audience was taking its seats for this performance, a lady in the row behind mine declared her fear of the theatre; how she is filled with dread and trepidation each time she watches a play because something can so easily go wrong. I could only imagine her anxiety as she watched the pair weave, interlocked, around the stage – their bodies always in contact with one another’s.

Haunting in its silence, but visually and emotionally stimulating, the real innovation of Tmesis is its ability to capture both the humorous and the intense aspects of true love. The lady behind was luckily enthralled by the performance; not put off by the grey sausage-skin or the slightly unsettled desperation prominent after the separation of the lovers, she too felt the charge and emotional pull of the piece.

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