Acrobatics at the Rep
If you’ve always been enchanted by the concept of sonder: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, you will be amazed and affected by Seattle Rep’s Passengers. As the title suggests, Passengers is about the complex inner lives of passengers. Passengers is performed by The 7 Fingers, an acrobatic and theater arts collective based in Montréal. The script is comedic and thoughtful. The acrobatics are astounding. If you enjoy thought experiments, people-watching, circuses, and/or electro swing jazz (music by Colin Gagné), you would enjoy Passengers.
The setting of Passengers is a train ride in what feels to be the 1920s (scenography by Ana Cappelluto, costume design by Camille Thiabault-Bédard). When we ride the train, we have a mundane destination like a doctor’s office or a grocery store but a train ride in the 1920s would be like what a plane ride is to us. Plane rides are costly and time consuming, so we only get on a plane when we need to. Like when there’s been a death in the family, or when we’re meeting someone we love, or when we get a new job away from home.
The sentiment that transportation can be transitional and important is conveyed well in the opening of Passengers. It’s hard to describe the performance of The 7 Fingers in the opening, but if I had to try I would say it is full of motion and rest. For five minutes, acrobats are flying across the theater, caught in the rapids of life, ailed and aided by a haunting theme in the background composed by Raphael Cruz.
Some acrobats combine slow movements with a depiction of the negative reasons for their characters to be riding the train. For instance, some acrobats depict an argument with a partner, while, at the same time, other acrobats combine fast movements with a depiction of the positive reasons for their characters to be riding the train. For instance, they depict a quick, but emotional hug between friends. I say “depict” but these are just a few ways you could interpret the opening due to the lack of script.
One part of Passengers is the story it tells, but the other part is the sheer physique it takes for The 7 Fingers to perform it! Maybe you’re not really into open-interpretation performance art but there is no way you don’t want to see a man (Marco Ingaramo) death drop off a 20 foot pole, or see someone (Kaisha Dessalines-Wright), palms against feet, lift someone, who is lifting someone (think person totem pole) and think, “Gosh… it would suck to be at the bottom…”
An important part of enjoying Passengers is not focusing on the script too much. The script functions more as entertainment, not a story. For instance, at one point in the play, Kaisha Dessalines-Wright stops time to mess with the other passengers (think Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past). You could either think, “Whoa! This is an important plot point! She has a supernatural ability!” (which opens a whole different can of narrative worms) or you could think, “Haha, this is funny!” (think Faye Wong and Tony Leung in Chungking Express or Amélie Poulain sneaking into Collignon’s apartment).
However, if you are stuck on that can of narrative worms (aka plotholes) that is also up for interpretation! After Kaisha Dessalines-Wright introduces and explains a thought experiment, she is asked why it matters. As she answers, however, she is drowned out by the whistle of the oncoming train. This piques the attention of us, the analytical audience members. This could represent a “plothole” in a people-watching narrative. Like when you’re people-watching but then you see a squirrel and get distracted, or when the narrative you’ve created gets too complicated and you give up, that makes plotholes!
You could also think of it as an Easter egg for us analytical audience members. Maybe Shana Carroll (the director, writer and choreographer of Passengers) is trying to say, “I see you being analytical and stuff.” I’m against mindlessly agreeing with the opinion of reviewers, but just absorb my interpretations! Just enjoy watching duo trapeze and someone (Méliejade Tremblay-Bouchard) spin five hula hoops on her body. (I’m writing about my interpretation so you don’t have to!)
Passengers is about strangers and how their lives intercept on a train ride, but it’s no Valentine’s Day (2010). We may see ourselves in them and we may wonder about their lives, but in the end they remain a mystery to us. Passengers is staged in Seattle Rep’s beautiful, newly remodeled theater and it is filled with play-goers who are there to enthusiastically celebrate the second production of Seattle Rep’s season!
Passengers Seattle Rep, Bagley Wright Theatre. 155 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109. September 22- October 15, 2023. Look online for ASL interpreted showings, showings with post-show panels and more.