I must have moved, shivered, trembled, for in the photograph my left foot shows six toes. Hardly surprising, as we were cold and terrified, naked in performance for the first time, our bodies untrusting, not quite surrendered to the suspension harnesses, uneasy in our skins. And this was the premiere, shot through with excitement, anticipation, nervousness, foreboding, for we had practised so little.

They'd hauled us up to the brewery ceiling on crude ropes and pulleys. The harnesses chaffed wherever they touched: shoulders, groin, back. The spectators had entered, unaware of our presence above them in the smoke. We began to descend, singly, to the pulsing soundtrack. Below us the sawdust circle, blank television screens, the water-tank. At first a certain freedom: to walk in air, to stretch out in all directions, to twist and turn. And then to hang upside-down! Looking down at them looking up at us. Not flying exactly but free of surface, of choreographic imperative, of the need to breathe hard, of sole responsibility for one's physical action, for here we were animated by others. We felt beautiful, weightless, angelic. And then the tank coming towards us. Heating the water with a central heating element had helped little. Mark was first in, shaking, quaking. I followed, frozen fingers desperately trying to unscrew and re-screw the rings that would connect us.. Then a huge pull and we rose together linked like a pieta - in intimate contact, with the lightest of touches - without the need to support each other. And then it happened. A D-shaped ring carrying our joint weight turned suddenly from its flat side to a corner. In the air we dropped, about an inch. In our stomachs it felt like a mile, like the gear was collapsing, like death would come rushing up to meet us at any moment. Of course, no one noticed. How would they ever distinguish a mistake in such a new and alien environment? And we kept our composure, showed nothing. But I knew. For that was not only water running down my leg and dripping from my sixth toe!

Mike Pearson
From Theatre/Archaeology

Posted at Mar 16/2006 09:33PM:
alex kufudakis: los he visto en Argentina (teatro General San Martin, British Council) y jamás los olvidaré. Han logrado perpetuar en mí, un recuerdo sensorial y emocional indescriptible. He visto a otros grupos, cada cual con su impronta, pero son, sin duda una cosa aparte. Hasta pronto. Alex