Nature Theater of Oklahoma
Poetics: A Ballet Brut

There they are hanging around in front of the stage curtain, sipping their coffee, casting knowing glances at each other, studying the audience, crossing their arms. Snide looks, bad moods, flirtatious, close to tears… the performers from the Nature Theater of Oklahoma give us enough time to get to know them. At least it would seem so. For anyone who saw this New York off-off-off Broadway ensemble in their first show “No Dice” in a German-speaking country at the last steirischer herbst knows that this presumption is wrong. Directors Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska play with simplicity; – but simple they are not.

Suddenly, all the supposedly banal gestures and facial expressions piece together to create first a brilliant solo, then a group choreography. In the space of a moment, “Poetics” turns into a fast-paced dance. A tour de force, that builds up and up. And up.

The piece by this young group of performers with big hearts, big personalities and almost no formal dance training focuses on everyday patterns of movement, linking them together in less than an hour to create a show that needs more space than the whole of the auditorium. Intimate moments and theatrical passion alternate as new spaces and new characters appear. A colossal ode to the liberating power of simplicity in the truly classical sense: after all, the constitutive key concepts of imitation, harmony, rhythm, fear, pity and spectacle are based on nothing less than Aristotle’s “Poetics”.

Nature Theater is back in town!

Konzept / Idee: Kelly Copper
Konzept / Idee: Pavol Liska
Regie: Kelly Copper
Regie: Pavol Liska
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Anne Gridley
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Robert M. Johanson
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Fletcher Liegerot
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Zachary Oberzan
Musik: Kristin Worrall
Bühnenbild, Ausstattung, Raumgestaltung: Peter Nigrini
Lichtregie: Tim Cryan
Künstlerin / Künstler / Gruppe: Nature Theater of Oklahoma