Ostinato, Born In A Taxi, May 25, 2000

Ostinato by Born in a Taxi

at Theatreworks; May 25 until June,  2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Ostinato is one of my most satisfying and joyful nights in the theatre recently. It is improvised (don't squeal!) movement performance that creates some beautiful random choreography and hilarious accidental comedy.

Born in a Taxi has the best name in the business for an improvisation group. It captures the spontaneity and sheer astonishment we experience at unexpected moments in our lives.

That's how improvisation on stage works for an audience. It makes us gasp with child-like pleasure at the confluence of ideas, the synchronicity of thought and the mathematical order of patterns on the floor.

This kind of performance relies upon the four artists (Penny Baron, David Wells, Nick Papas, Carolyn Hanna) rehearsing form and style rather than content. It is a highly skilled technique that applies to dance, acting and music alike. It is a return to that place of innocence and play that allows the artist, like the child, to truly create the product during the process.

The stage is bare and black. The costumes are stylish and white. The flow is strewn with talcum powder that, with the swishing of improvising feet, creates a mandala in the centre of the space.

We see emerging, the physical motifs that will permeate the evening's performance : sprinkling hands, rubbing necks, grasping heads, fingers crossed, backs crushed. We watch patterns repeat and echo and images collide to create random choreography. We see images and actions reincorporated to the immense satisfaction of the audience.

We are meaning makers. For this reason, stories and characters relationships and conflicts emerge from what could be chaos. The performers react and respond to impulses, listen and feel each other shift in the space. It is imperceptible to us but they are tuned together like an instrument.

There are honestly some hilarious and spontaneous pure clown moments, many of which are initiated by one of my favourite Melbourne clowns, Penny Baron.

The piano music by Simeon Hen Holt has the persistent rhythmic beat of its title, Ostinato, which means "persistent". It is mesmerising. Lighting operator, Nick Pajanti is improvising with the rest of 'em.

This is a profoundly enjoyable night - and it will be different every performance. Believe me. It really is improvised.

 By Kate Herbert