TEWAZ Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, cabiri.org. $20–$35. 7:30 p.m. Fri.–Sun. Ends

By Sandra Kurtz • June 9, 2014 11:17 am
Cabiri members in leopard mode.
Cabiri members in leopard mode.

TEWAZ

Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, cabiri.org. $20–$35. 7:30 p.m. Fri.–Sun. 
Ends June 14.

The Cabiri’s shows have always been ambitious combinations of intensely physical dance theater and mysterious, mythology-based 
narrative. They want to blow your socks off while teaching you a lesson about the foundational stories of civilization. But this time out, it looks as if they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

The story in TEWAZ reaches back to pre-Genesis descriptions of angels and demons, at a time when gods and humans existed together on Earth. It’s rich material for theater, but tricky to keep straight, even with the detailed description in the playbill. Artistic director John Murphy shows us an incredible plethora of characters: humans who hunt as leopards, loping across the stage on all four limbs; angels hanging from the ceiling on silks and trapezes; one priestess who could’ve been Ruth St. Denis in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance; and another who looks like Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. They all perform a complicated mix of dance, gymnastics, martial arts, and aerial choreography—much of it highly skilled work.

With all these elements in play, TEWAZ seems overwhelmed by the sheer size of its tale. Even factoring in opening-night jitters, there were gaps in the narrative and cracks in the technical flow. Some individual scenes are astonishing, especially the aerial battles and the tumbling hunters pursuing a yak, but transitions need to be tightened up. The story either needs to be simplified or narrated more closely.

The Cabiri’s mytho-acrobatic performance style does fit these stories of gods and humans: When we see a demon on a bungee snatch up a cowering villager, we’re right in the middle of those cave-art times. But we expect a great deal from special effects in these 3-D days; and if you’re going to present yourself as a pocket version of Cirque du Soleil, you’ve set your bar high. Maybe too high. TEWAZ is the first chapter in the Tea Trilogy, which the Cabiri will continue the next couple of years. By the time we get to Book Two, they should be further along on all fronts.

stage@seattleweekly.com