Sounding Off

This is what the CCA is very good at, and one of the reasons we need a place like this. As a one man show without a narrative, its hard to say exactly what it's 'about'; however many impressions spring to mind while watching and linger on long after watching.

All the senses are engaged; there's the tactile red thread the audience are made to use to form a ten pointed star, the scent of incense and the taste of honey, cinnamon and matzo as a bowl is passed around us to partake. The man in the centre of the room enacts various religious rituals as a recording of kallablistic lore plays from various vantage points in the room; so the eyes and ears are subject to stimulus as well. The man himself is wordless, which seems to evoke certain abstract aspects to spirituality and gives the show its 'cryptic' nature.

It also allows to audience to reflect on their own experience of religion/spirituality. Though the touchstones recognisably are in the Jewish tradition, the air of reverence and ritual, of self-abasement as he straps his own back with a belt, of community spirit as we all break bread together, of quiet awe and eventual ecstacy, are all universal. Contemplative, moving, eerily beautiful at times, it's a fine way to spend a cryptic nights, and bodes well for the future of Thursdays at the CCA.