The View From Outside Lugares Comunes

Seven human beings lie in a straight line at a 45-degree angle, propped up by circular black chairs. They look like they are in cryonic sleep, and given the white-haired wigs the performers are wearing, they could have been unconscious for quite some time. Such is the set-up for Québécois Benoît Lachambre’s new work, Lugares Comunes, which plays one last time tonight (Saturday) at Usine C.

We can see links to the two works that Lachambre presented in Montreal last year. Forgeries, Love and other matters took place in a post-apocalyptic world. Here, we are not quite there yet, but the setting is definitely futuristic and similarly devoid of human emotion. The piece he had created for Louise Lecavalier moved at a snail’s pace, and here again he experiments with slow movement.

I have to admit that I found Lugares Comunes particularly alienating. There is very little doubt that Lachambre strives for this effect, but dare I say that it works just a bit too well. Ten characters use about half as many different languages without any translation in French or English for the most part. There is definitely something to be said about the anglo-centric pressures that art is often subjected to in order to reach the widest audience, but it also seems unfair to expect people to be able to master 5 or 6 different languages. At the very least subtitles should be offered, especially during sections where characters speak for 10 minutes in languages that most Montrealers do not understand.

Of course, even though it may not seem like it, we are talking about a dance show here. The movement is minimal(ist), which can sometimes work wonderfully, but here too little thought seems to have been put into it. The dancers are often left to improvise and what they come up with within the structure they are given is not particularly interesting.

Undoubtedly, Lugares Comunes is a hard work to penetrate. The audience is always left on the outside, which – based on the lighting – seems to have been part of Lachambre’s intentions. The house lights are often left on throughout the show, as if Lachambre did not want to allow us to forget ourselves and become passive observers. But from our standpoint on the margins of the experience, it is often difficult to find any element to cling onto.

There are some outstanding moments in Lugares Comunes: the dynamics of performers functioning in three different “speed zones”, the humour of an incomprehensible game akin to “rock, paper, scissors”, the magic beauty of chairs slowly moving by themselves… But these moments are ultimately too few and far in between to raise this work above the level of experimentation.

Lugares Comunes plays one last time tonight (Saturday) at 8pm at Usine C. Tickets are 30$ (24$ for students) and can be purchased by calling 514-521-4493.

PREVIEW: Next week, Danse Danse launches its 10th season with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan’s Wild Cursive at Place des Arts. Choreographed by Lin Hwai-min, voted Choreographer of the 20th Century by Dance Europe magazine, this work requires no fewer than 19 dancers. For ticket information, call 514-842-2112.