The 7 Fingers is a Montreal-based circus troupe built in the shadow of Cirque du Soleil, but the similarities only go so far. While Cirque du Soleil is now a Hollywood-scale behemoth owned by a private equity firm that mounts 20-plus shows in nearly as many cities, The 7 Fingers operates more like an indie upstart in the A24 art-house mold. Sure, the company has collaborated on circus-themed Broadway shows like the 2013 revival of Pippin and last year’s Water for Elephants. But the hallmark of a 7 Fingers production is a commitment to storytelling and artistry over mere spectacle or derring-do.
Passengers, which is now playing at PAC NYC’s Perelman Performing Arts Center, gathers nine circus and dance veterans for a train ride through some liminal space and time:” Sereno Aguilar Izzo, Kaisha Dessalines-Wright, Marie-Christine Fournier, Eduardo De Azevedo Grillo, Marco Ingaramo, Anna Kichtchenko, Maude Parent, Michael Patterson, Pablo Pramparo, Méliejade Tremblay-Bouchard, and Will Underwood.
They stack themselves on each other’s shoulders (three-people high!), dive through spinning hoops, swing on aerial silk hammocks, juggle balls, climb poles, and leap into each other’s arms (in one memorable case, from a performer on the ground to one hanging from a bar suspended high above, and then back again).
They also interject epigrammatic ideas of the sort that might wander into your head while traveling: “Time moves slower on a train,” one observes before delivering an abbreviated description of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Another appears to stop time altogether so she can contort her fellow travelers into unusual positions while they are “frozen.” We see couples in the throes of young love, and others struggling through a breakup — though there are no clearly identifiable characters to follow from scene to scene.
Still, writer-director-choreographer Shana Carroll provides a slender, tightrope-thick thread of narrative momentum to carry us along for 90 minutes. There’s none of the usual dead time between routines in other circus shows, since the train-scene transitions help set the stage for the next wondrous act. The songs (composed by Colin Gagné, who co-wrote the lyrics with Carroll) are pleasantly bouncy pastishes — though they sound better on prerecorded tracks than sung live by a cast that’s stronger in movement than melody.
Like the best theater, Passengers invites us to consider our mortality, and the passage of time. It also puts an intimate, human face on feats of physical strength and flexibility that frequently induce more awe than comprehension. How do they do that, anyway, night after night? How inspiring to think of the limits to which we can push our bodies, how versatile and how vulnerable we are in our skin. ★★★★☆
PASSENGERS
Perelman Performing Arts Center/PAC NYC, Off Broadway
Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through June 29 for $37 to $117
Culture Sauce 