Acrobatics, literature and a steel cage come together in LSU Theatre’s latest offering, “Love, War and Survival.”
The production is a physical theater trio performed by a spectrum of participants from graduate students to a 12-year-old child. An ensemble cast including performers from the Baton Rouge community performs the first and third pieces, “Love” and “Survival,” respectively.
Nick Erickson, a stage movement specialist and assistant professor of theater, directs “Love, War and Survival.” Erickson also was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based acrobatic dance company, Diavolo.
Erickson said his time with Diavolo helped him achieve the level of performance “Love, War and Survival” reaches.
“It was in that time that I really discovered how someone like me with acting talent and training can do highly physical abstracted work and make it live using acting technique,” said Erickson.
Adam Miller, director of marketing and public relations for LSU Theatre, said the cage plays a vital role in the production.
“They hang from the cube in different ways, swing from it, and it’s very intricately choreographed,” said Miller. “They move a lot, but they also pause and create pictures, and from that the audience takes meaning and hopefully inspiration.”
The first two pieces of the production are based loosely on literature. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” frames “Love,” while “War” is based loosely on the play “Blood Wedding” by renowned Spanish playwright Frederico Garcia Lorca.
The play does not recount the stories precisely, Miller said.
“They don’t exactly try to tell the story,” Miller said. “But rather physically realize it using various visual images constructed by their bodies, the cage and their environment. That’s what’s so special about this performance.”
The pattern of the play is carefully structured to mirror the human experience, Erickson said.
“The whole show goes from intellectual, cerebral and moves toward kinetic and visceral, much like our country’s reaction to war,” Erickson said. “It started with an intellectual idea, but then it becomes more and more personal and visceral. As we get into it, people start seeing the images and how intense it is. So that’s part of what I’m mirroring, trying to show how we as human beings deal with these issues.”
Performances will be held May 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Claude L. Shaver Theatre in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building and in New Orleans at the Zeitgeist Theatre on May 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. each night. Tickets for the Baton Rouge performances are available at the door up to one hour before each performance. A donation of $6 is suggested. For more information call 578-4174 or visit www.theatre.lsu.edu.