Tipping Point at Platform Theatre
A highlight of the London International Mime Festival, The Tipping Point is a masterful display of artistic athleticism and vertical ballet. The show takes a gymnastic routine and mystifies it until it becomes inhuman and performed by muscular pixies.
Directed by Ockham’s Razor, a team of Charlotte Mooney and Tina Koch, the choreography impresses by building from humble beginnings. Starting with ingenious but basic theatrics, the performers draw the audience into a plotless story that eventually involves many bodies flying through the air and contraptions being changed and set up on the spot by the dancers.
The performers (Nich Galzin, Alex Harvey, Emily Nicholl, Telma Pinto and Steve Ryan) devise the flow and mechanics to stun physically and viscerally. While wrapped up in the shear impressiveness of their feats, the audience is shown another layer of meaning with emotive interplays and symbolic chalk drawings.
The act begins with melancholic melodies ringing out as the actors walk the stage purposively. They initiate the audience’s wonder by using a soon-to-be-major prop to lay out a chalk circle at the toes of the crowd. The ceremony continues as they share the chalk, rubbing their hands like weightlifters and bringing to mind that these are athletes about to execute their life’s work. Later, tension rips through the audience as the biggest male gymnast holds onto the arm of a female twirling in the middle of the circular stage, the man hanging from an apparatus five meters high. The spectators are dazzled by near deaths being laughed off and feats of strength performed by small women. Their intense focus on remains the pure inspiration displayed in front of them remains unbroken.
This fantastic piece requires a seamless combination of expressiveness, musicality, athleticism and teamwork. The musical score is excellent and perfectly fits what is happening on stage, ranging from mournful to mystical to intense. The lighting is superb, particularly the slow-burning surprise at the end of the show. This striking production is inspiring and transports the spectator into an Olympic fairy-tale with which they feel impelled to join in.
Matthew Pronchick
Photo: Nik Mackey
The Tipping Point is on at Platform Theatre from 11th January until 23rd January, for further information or to book visit here.
Watch the trailer for The Tipping Point here:
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