Germinal - Out There Series at the Walker

Photo: Alain Rico

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

oh man - so sad to see this series go. As often stated, the Out There series is one of the highlights of the Arts Scene in a Minnesota January. This last performance was "Germinal", conceived and directed by Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort. The shows for the Out There series plays three nights. I was at the Friday night performance, and the house seemed to be full from what I saw. Since the cast seemed to be mainly French, there was a lot of French being spoken around me pre-show. Personally, I love the diversity of an Out There audience.

Photo: Bea Borgers

The only bit of info that I had about this show was this. If we had to start out a new world with only four people, how would it start? what would it be made of? The stage was raised up, black curtains across three sides, and four people lying down in the dark. The house lights go down and we sit in silence and darkness for a while. Soon a light goes one, then goes off. Another does the same. The first light repeats - giving the impression that the lighting tech in the booth is just playing with the lights. Eventually lights do come up and stay up - you see that each of the four actors has a control box in front of the, and each actor is playing with light levels. The actors are discovering their environment. They stand, look around, move around and you realize that words are set across the back of the stage. The actors point up and realize that they are the thoughts each actor is thinking, and conversation starts. There are four actors and only two screens so there is some confusion about who is saying what. Eventually the curtains come down, and each character has a location for their thoughts. The curtains are stacked up towards the back of the stage and Arnaud, Denis, and Halory decide to relax. Ondine is walking around the stage and hears something different under the floor. She walks out a door in the back, comes back with a pick-axe and starts ripping up the floor. She finds a microphone...which eventually leads to each actor literally finding their voice. While they did speak some English (and a smattering of Japanese), most of the spoken word was in French, while the screens and categorization was in English.

The show continues in this format, the actors recognizing what is needed, and exploring their world. They figure out how to categorize their limited world, they recognize sound and music, they realize that time ends - creating a system, a life, a world. From recognizing light, thoughts, sound, language, consciousness, moving to organization of thoughts, categorizing, and chronology. Fascinating and funny, smart and moving, the perfect end to a great series.

Photo: Alain Rico

The post show interview came up with some great thoughts about theatre. My favorite was about the Necrophilia of theater - we've been doing this for 2000 years or more, and while theater isn't dead...well... The other thing Halory said was that theater is live and changes can be made every single night. That is one of the more beautiful things about theater, and one I really enjoy about theater and the Out There series.