The world’s freakiest theatre troupe? This phrase appeared atop a 2022 Guardian article about Peeping Tom. Now, the Belgian dance-theatre company will bring one of its most celebrated works to the Vancouver Playhouse from April 24 to 26. Anyone who attends DanceHouse’s presentation of Diptych: The missing door and The lost room should prepare for an intense evening full of surprises.
“Peeping Tom takes on a surreal and highly cinematic storytelling approach, featuring extraordinary physicality and pushing the limits of movement with astonishing performances,” sats DanceHouse artistic and executive director in a news release. “Diptych deftly balances darkness with moments of absurd humour as the company delves into psychological depths to explore relationships, subconscious fears, and the nature of reality itself.”
Created by Peeping Tom co-founders Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, eight characters wander through a macabre labyrinth from which they cannot escape. Each part of the show is in a different setting. And Peeping Tom integrates set changes into the performance.
“Each part of the diptych has its own unique setting and evokes a film set,” the company states on its website. “The missing door is set in a room or hallway filled with doors that won’t open. The action in The lost room happens in a cabin on a ship, focusing on the interior world of the characters.”
Peeping Tom creates unstable universe
Peeping Tom says that it creates shows in familiar spaces, such as a garden, living room, or trailer homes.
“The creators then break open this realism,” it notes. “They create an unstable universe that defies the logic of time, space and mood. You become the witness – or rather, the voyeur? – of what usually remains hidden and unsaid.”
This month, Peeping Tom performed their 70-minute show at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. In a program note, NAC Dance executive producer Caroline Ohrt described the performers as “acrobats, magicians and actors, transporting us into their imaginary world that is revealed by an extraordinary choreographic language”.
DanceHouse presents the B.C. premiere of Peeping Tom’s Diptych: The missing door and The lost room at 8 p.m. from April 24 to 26 at the Vancouver Playhouse. For tickets and information, visit the DanceHouse website.
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