Ten Thousand Hours, Aberdeen review - 'Astonishing feats of aerial athleticism'
Ten Thousand Hours, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen ****
A Bee Story, Lemon Tree, Aberdeen ****
The award-winning Australian company Gravity And Other Myths have brought a new show to Scotland this summer; but in an exciting new development for theatre fans in Scotland’s north-east, the show’s international premiere took place not on the Edinburgh Fringe – where it plays at the Assembly Hall for the next three weeks – but last Thursday night, at the beautiful His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen.
The show appeared as part of Aberdeen Performing Arts’s new international season, brainchild of chief executive Sharon Burgess; and to judge by the rapturous reception and standing ovation that greeted Ten Thousand Hours, the company’s latest hour-long adventure in inspired 21st century circus, there’s an eager audience in Aberdeen ready for more brilliant international performance, whenever APA is able to programme it.
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Hide AdDirected by company co-founder Lachlan Binns, Ten Thousand Hours is a brilliant, beautiful and emotionally honest show about just how long it takes to become truly skilled at any difficult and demanding task; and it’s delivered by a cast of eight - plus co-composer and drummer Nick Martyn - with a hugely impressive combination of superb physical skill and thoughtful emotional maturity, as well as a rich sense of fun.
So there are sequences of sheer dazzling virtuosity, as the dancer-performers – often moving in unison – perform astonishing feats of aerial athleticism and balance. There are fun and games with the audience, as a solo dancer improvises different styles of dance according to shouted audience suggestions.
And towards the end, there’s perhaps something darker, as the six men in the company use their sheer strength to throw, twist and swing the two women around the stage; not that the women’s strength has not been amply demonstrated earlier, but that the show ends with this more thought-provoking series of images. The level of thought, skill and emotional courage on display is often breathtaking, in other words; and it seems certain that Gravity And Other Myths have another beautifully-presented Fringe hit on their hands.
The connection with Australia and New Zealand runs through most of the international season shows in Aberdeen this summer; and over the weekend, the gorgeous ARC Circus of New Zealand appeared in Aberdeen, before heading to Edinburgh for a three week run at Assembly George Square Gardens. ARC Circus – creator-performers Robbie Curtis and Lizzie McRae – are returning to Scotland with their previous Fringe hit A Bee Story; and to say that a packed audience of Aberdeen children and their families enjoyed the Saturday morning performance at the Lemon Tree is a huge understatement, as they cheered, laughed and gasped their way through the show’s fine combination of shapely storytelling and impressive comedy acrobatics.
The environmental message behind the story is handled with a beautifully light touch, and a jelly, happy ending. Yet it also lends a fine sense of structure and meaning to a 55 minute show full of fun and invention, as well as those terrific levels of physical skill that now form such an impressive part of theatre and performance from down under, whether in Edinburgh in August, or on a sunny summer weekend in Aberdeen.
Ten Thousand Hours at the Assembly Hall, Edinburgh 1-24 August. A Bee Story at Assembly George Square Gardens, Edinburgh, 2-25 August. Aberdeen Performing Arts International Season continues until 7 September; details at www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/