Cake. My God. Let’s
This show by Audrey Rochette billed itself as a reflection on the worship of selling vs. value, but like most of the good art on the French side of the conceptual divide, this dance-theatre-performance art piece can be a lot of different things. I’m not sure quite how to describe it. The basis of the piece is that a group of people are participating in the creation of the eponymous cake, however, what the players are more preoccupied with is everything surrounding the creation of the cake and the mess it all generates is of epic proportions.
We have the cake as megalomaniacal sex. The cake as performance. The cake as replacement for what is truly a great accomplishment. The cake as god. The friend who I brought with me, who has an actual honest to goodness dance background saw the piece completely differently: cake as Instagram, Facebook likes run amok, dating sites showing bits and pieces of the reality of a person. The more attention given to a project, the more the person running the project loses their way until everything, their person and their relationships are completely destroyed. It feels too early to write this review, because it was such an open ended piece and there is a lot to consider. It was superbly well done.
The performers, six stunning women and one over the top man, are mesmerizing. Their interplay is ridiculous and grotesque at times, the power that he has over them, the pull. As a feminist, it feels completely uncomfortable to watch at times, as the women are always in a reactive position to the man’s actions and he manipulates the scenes with full control. There is a moment when he literally pulls a woman from a clump because she’s the one that he wants to play with now. That’s hard to watch. The performances are straight up athletic and the choreography is truly evocative. You let this piece simply wash over you like a wave. At one hour, it avoids feeling overwhelming or overly belaboured.
This is an almost entirely non verbal piece and I recommend that you have the experience of it. It will shock you, titillate you, intrigue you. It’s definitely a think piece, and to avoid if you are just looking for straight entertainment. It is, on the other hand, exciting. Dangerous. Experimental. I loved it and want to see more.
Cake is playing at Théâtre la Chapelle (3700 St-Dominique) from March 8-12, 8 p.m. Tickets HERE.
