Voloz Collective Wows in Woodstock
International Physical Theatre Hits Its Mark
August 4, 2024
Woodstock, VT — Last night, the Pentangle Arts Center hosted Voloz Collective, an international physical theatre company, for a single performance of The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, an original play in Woodstock, VT. If you missed this movement-based whodunnit, fear not, Voloz Collective is busy writing a script and rehearsing a new show, The Sable Project, to be performed in Stockbridge, VT on August 9th, then another on the Lebanon, NH green as part of the Nexus Festival on August 11th upcoming. Visit This Link for future (and past) Voloz Collective performance dates ranging from Chicago and Cleveland, to Stockbridge and Adams, MA, then on to Birmingham, UK. Voloz Collective performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023 and is now making its way around the world with alacrity and high-energy performances.
With a plot that moves somewhat disjointedly at times, the innovative body movement of the Collective’s four actors was more than enough to scratch my omnipresent itch for strong, new, innovative, improvisational theatre performed locally. Think Mummenschanz meets Blue Man Group, but with the added delights of script and plot that twists and moves in rapid-fire succession from Harvard Square to Paris to Dallas to, surprisingly, a boat full of Norwegian fisherpeople rocking on a nighttime sea. At times, I wondered where in the world the actors were, though always the body movement that captures the essence a lithe, living, tensioned quartet of bodies can physically achieve wowed me. The minimalist props of a reappearing red hat, newspapers, scarves, a yellow rain hat, plus some potent on-stage lighting effects were plenty to keep me focused on the four bodies working their visceral magic. In fact, “body as props” is apropos of what the nearly-full-house audience witnessed in last night’s performance.
The Voloz Collective actors trained at the Jacques Lecoq international school of theatre in Paris, a two-year program that focuses on physical theatre in all its forms, from the animalistic to the impressionistic, pushing the human body to create new shapes, sounds, imagery, and tomfoolery all at once. The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much propelled these bodies through global time zones rife with pistols made of human hands that shoot bullets in slow motion. Infrared laser beams pointed by fingers and toes entrapped and enmeshed the unwary protagonist with a French-accented first name comedically mangled and mispronounced by others. Facial expressions were expressively exacting. In all, this was a playful 75 minutes of experimental, movement-drenched, original theatre you might otherwise have to travel far to see.
A full review of this show’s Chicago performance by Ella Thornburn is at This Link. I hope to see Voloz Collective again. Whatever material they develop for audiences in Stockbridge, VT and Lebanon, NH, I’m sure will amaze and delight me anew.
Dave Celone is vice president of alumni relations and development for Vermont Law and Graduate School. He writes from Sharon, VT.