Review: Rushes

Circa Theatre has been trans­formed into a series of per­form­ances areas fea­tur­ing music, video, and con­tem­por­ary dance. The audi­ence fol­lows the per­formers as they move through dif­fer­ent spaces until we all end up at the same stage.

Rushes is a fas­cin­at­ing and con­tra­dict­ory exper­i­ence. It’s excit­ing to see Circa opened up even though it’s hid­den behind a white wrap. We’re invited to make our own path­ways and explore but there’s a very clear path­way to fol­low. Each space/place has cap­tiv­at­ing music, phys­ic­al per­form­ance and light­ing or video. As an audi­ence mem­ber you feel the desire to stay in one space yet you’re aware there are more per­form­ance spaces. You want to stay and soak in the atmo­sphere only you can’t because curi­os­ity (and #fomo) leads you on. Adults have the glee­ful excite­ment of chil­dren as we explore the spaces and the win­dows in to dif­fer­ent areas. The per­formers move with us, rush­ing past up and down stairs, in and out of lights. They dance togeth­er or they solo, lit by clev­er lights or videos. Per­formers and audi­ence blend because we’re all mov­ing togeth­er. Some­times the only way to tell them apart is to look for the wine glass (although this is not a  fool­proof method).I try to medi­ate my exper­i­ence by tak­ing a lot of pho­tos and videos and I see oth­ers doing the same. It’s over­whelm­ing. It’s exhil­ar­at­ing. It’s mes­mer­ising. I’m going again.

See it before it fin­ishes.

NB: This is a prom­en­ade per­form­ance and not all areas are wheel­chair access­ible.

• Rushes, on at Circa Theatre to 5 March 2018, as part of the New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al