Murmur
The Ark, Temple Bar, Dublin
★★★★☆
Before Camiel Corneille enters the auditorium, each of the audience of excited schoolchildren has been given a brown backpack to put on. The novelty has created an atmosphere of anticipation: the performer has the attention of the room as he makes his way centre stage.
That’s when we begin to hear sounds of splashing, crunching and buzzing coming from his body. Corneille produces a series of small speakers from his clothing, each of which emits a different sound: we hear wind blowing, water gushing, footsteps crunching on gravel.
Sound and movement are cleverly woven together as Corneille builds physical characters and imaginary worlds from this tapestry of sound design created by the composer Stijn Dicke. At one point he crawls across the floor, his joints folding and unfolding to the sound of creaking, like some kind of animatronic animal. The textural soundscape later scores an acrobatic sequence of cartwheels, flips and rolls.
The audience, who are seated in the round, are actively involved in the performance: Corneille hands speakers to some delighted children, encouraging them to move their arms in ways that correspond to the whirring or rattling sounds they hold. The purpose of our backpacks becomes clear when they too begin to buzz, making everyone in the audience part of the symphony.
Murmur: The young audience gasp and laugh, mesmerised by this playful, inventive performance
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The star award for audience participation has to go to one little boy who, with permission, Corneille picks up, puts on his shoulders and spins around before placing him back in his seat. The boy seems exhilarated: it’s refreshing to witness this kind of freedom and sense of risk and excitement in a work for children.
Murmur, a Belgian production directed by Hanne Vandersteene and Mahlu Mertens, certainly doesn’t shy away from risk. Corneille clips two large wooden speakers into a set of aerial straps and sends the speakers swinging and spinning across the stage, dodging them with millimetres to spare. The effect is thrilling.
He then takes to the air on the straps himself, sailing and spinning around the perimeter of the space with such breadth and force that it’s hard not to worry that a child might receive a foot to the face at any moment.
Corneille, however, displays assurance and precision in his movement that ultimately create a sense of trust in the audience. The children themselves gasp and laugh, mesmerised and invigorated by his flight. This is a playful and inventive production that ignites the imagination through sound and movement, enchanting children and adults alike.
