Yé ! (L’Eau)

Yé ! (L’eau) brings the circus into the theater, and foregrounds water as the slippery, elusive, and coveted elixir that European audiences mostly take for granted. The acrobats of Circus Baobab take us on a journey spanning continents and generations, a journey gravitating around the ubiquitous plastic water bottle, turned polyvalent stage prop.

Empty and crushed replicas invade the stage floor, their translucent softness presenting a disturbingly contrasting aesthetic: a sea of plastic, water replaced by now-empty receptacles, the over-abundance of lack. The contrast extends to the practical level also as the flattened bottles simultaneously function as sliding ground and crash pad to the acrobats. A matriarchal figure held (literally) in high esteem drinks victoriously from a full bottle as she is both carried and pursued across the stage. Clearly the object of much envy, full water bottles are tossed and passed back and forth across violent scenes of struggle by those who find water to be always beyond their grasp.

Sometimes, the full bottles are used as weapons to bludgeon aggressors, sent flying as missiles towards a target, or revered in a techno-infused ritual. At others, the fighting suddenly turns fraternal, as the choreography interweaves conflict and complicity with uncanny twists. Clans are formed and territory marked, human pyramids constructed, until all the bottles become empty and a furious but futile foraging leads to desperation. At this point, the empty plastic bottles are gathered into a large fish net and held up to catch diving immigrants hurtling themselves into the depths.

Water returns at the end and is distributed among the audience in full, pristine bottles.        – A. Street