Flights of whimsy in performance art

TWO productions really put the "fringe" in the M1 Fringe Festival last week. Japanese theatre group Gotanndadan performed physical theatre in Suteru Tabi, where the death of a young man's father spurs his personal spiritual journey through family relationships, grief and remembrance. Singapore performance artist Noor Effendy Ibrahim and his ensemble presented text-less performance art, in Joget, Abang, Joget, which is his continued development of "excavating" inherent memories within the body through the abuse of the flesh.

One brought us on a whimsical journey, using the "vocabulary of dreams", while the other was more obfuscated, although it appealed to a small, dedicated audience.

So Suteru Tabi first, which features a bare plot revolving around a man who learns of his father's death and goes on a train journey with his family members. None of it is physical but mimed, and the tale unfolds in dream-like fashion and in fragmented sequences that require you to leave conventional means of comprehension at the door. For example, an imaginary pet dog Taro made an "appearance", morphing from a puppy into a grown dog and finally to an imaginary coffin.