Studies in Motion

Capture time. Break movement down into recognizable photographic sequences in order to escape inner chaos. That was the obsessive undertaking of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge. A few ghosts from the past (a cold-blooded murder, an abandonment) burst into the well-ordered universe of the man often referred to as the “father of cinema”. Soon sordid, swirling images of yesterday are superimposed on those of today. In Studies in Motion, the energetic Electric Company Theatre presents a dazzling theatrical panorama that combines speech, a dense soundscape, finely segmented choreography by Crystal Pite and shimmering lighting compositions to create a moving rumination on time and perception. Seriousness is interspersed with bursts of humour in this story imagined by Kevin Kerr, which goes beyond the constraints of biographical fiction to touch on the universal. Supporting the narrative are myriad visual elements that, like the work of Muybridge, gradually shatter our certainties regarding the perception of reality, the fabrication of meaning and the persistence of memory.