Martha Clarke's The Garden of Earthly Delight

(Photo: Richard Finkelstein)

Sat, Jan 10 – Part dance, part theatre, Martha Clarke's The Garden of Earthly Delights is an exciting visual spectacle based on a 1503 painting by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch that depicts a garden filled with people indulging in all manner of raucous "earthly delights." Clarke's piece combines dance, pantomime, music and theatrical effects (stage smoke, strobe lights, flying) to vaguely represent some of the shenanigans in the painting. Mostly, it is dark and moody – the piece begins with dancers animalistically crawling and hoofing their way out from a side wing, then rolling on the floor and generally getting in touch with the earthy part of human existence. The piece unfurls in an apocalyptic, aggressive fashion, with images and sequences rolling into and on top of each other. It climaxes in a spectacularly loud sequence with drumming, and performers flying high into the air above the stage and the audience.

I can't say whether there was a narrative, or if I remember a particular theme from the piece. I just remember being pretty drawn in and fascinated by the bizarre images occurring in front of me. It's a completely engrossing piece. The tableaus are set up with their own internal logic, keeping you fascinated in the smallest detail of what the performers are doing. It crescendos in that flying and noise I mentioned earlier. It was a great thing to see.