The pianist organises her notes. People arrive to the hall. Silence. The pianist starts. Soon after, a body enters from the side - it is on the ground, crawling. Slowly similar bodies merge into the space. An interaction between the music, piano, pianist and the bodies. In an hour, it ends. The bodies leave, the pianist takes off... Only the silent piano stays in the darkness. The audience gets up and leaves, too.
This is how you could describe the premiere of Close Up 2.0 by Editta Braun Company in the KUMU auditorium. Braun has been working with moving bodies and distorted limbs for years. Close Up 2.0 is a newer version of Close Up and belongs in the trilogy of Luvos, vol.2 and Planet LUVOS.
All three productions have similar play between the bodies, moving, light and stage design but they all differ by content. The three stories do not join into one whole narrative. Close Up 2.0 "falls out" from the series through its playfulness and freedom. When the previous productions have told certain story and carried a narrativ then Close Up 2.0 is a space for freedom and get-together's for the three components (bodies, pianist and piano).
Bodies have been a theme in some of the recent productions in Estonian theatre such as Doris Uhlich's More Than Naked and Renate Keerd's physical theatre works. Each of them have their own personalities, their own being and way of movement. Each body is different, with its own style.
Editta Braun Company's bodies are faceless, with look-a-like wigs and bodies. A body enters the stage. Is it the same that just left or a new one? Who is who? It really does not matter because they are bodies, one community, one tribe, one organism.
What do the bodies remind me? The description of the show says lemurs. Perhaps... Moving mushrooms? Hardly. And then, I remembered a creature from Estonian literature and animations who seemed to fit perfectly. Poku. Pokus are silent and fast, strange but friendly, coy but comical. Exactly like the bodies next to the eclectic soundtracks of Cécile Thevenot.
When the mere idea of postmodern esthetics, eclectic and sometimes dissonant pinao music, contemporary coreography and the pokus meeting is intriguing then being witness to the reality of such situation exceeds everyone's expectations and hopes. At least it did to my expectations.
Oliver Issak, theatre researcher
