The Pulse

Pulses did not race as the show got underway at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. On a big screen, after a filmed ‘Welcome to Country’, came Margaret Beazley, the Governor of New South Wales, smiling sweetly; then a Liberal gent who spoke for far too long about the ‘incredible excitement of the program’ to loud groans and intensifying mock applause; then a colourful Clover Moore in big close-up; finally Olivia Ansell, director of the Sydney Festival, looking a bit lost. Thank God that’s over.

There must be few Sydney venues where a mass of 22 acrobats and 26 black-clad female choir members can continually move about. The Rosyln Packer Theatre is one. While members of the Adelaide acrobatics group Gravity & Other Myths perform their amazing feats of people-stacking, the huge chorus of women move about the stage in tight formation. Made from the Young Adelaide Voices’ Aurora and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ VOX group, they manage to keep out of the gymnasts’ way, which is no easy thing.

‘Epic passages of seemingly impossible levels of cooperation’ follow, as the gymnasts firstly get ropes into place and then, ignoring the ropes, begin stacking and climbing all over each other. Not content with one standing on the shoulders of another, they go for three in a stack, while the choir warbles away to the complex music of Ekrem Eli Phoenix.

Director Darcy Grant has to keep the mass of singers well out of the way of his acrobats, which he manages to do by keeping them moving. There are some keen lighting effects from Geoff Cobham, sometimes throwing the whole scene into dark shadows, sometimes blazing with light.

Hardly a touring show with this many performers, The Pulse will remain a milestone of human touch and connection.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Jacquie Manning