An impressionistic memoir of a life on the trapeze and far beyond, The Attic: Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back creates such an engaging vibe at the Goodman Theatre that you leave wanting to know a lot more about writer, director and choreographer Shana Carroll.
This is memoir as delicious sampler platter, in which Carroll, co-founding artistic director of Montreal-based circus company The 7 Fingers, serves up intriguing snippets of her life and career via a highly talented troupe of 11 performers who create beautiful stage pictures with the trapeze, the hoops, the silks and other basic circus tools.
“I fell once” is a repeated refrain throughout the show. The phrase literally references a circus accident. But it also sets up the act of falling as a metaphor for living one’s life. The key in both cases: “You do have to learn to fall. Learn to fall in a way that does the least damage.”
And fall she does. In love. Onto the ground. Into the abyss of losing a pregnancy. Into the depths of a disease diagnosis and treatment. The latter includes a very witty use of circus hoops after a cool performance with them. Throughout there is music, funky, sexy, happy, sad, as the troupe of young, lithe performers deliver delightful images via acrobatics and truly exquisite dance moves.
It’s one of those rare productions that gives you a lot to chew on philosophically even while wowing you with memorable visuals. It’s true, you have to learn to fall, but this show also soars.
The Attic: Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back runs through Oct. 4 at the Goodman Theatre
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg
