340ft up close

Winnipeg Shibari Theatre—Eckhardt-Gramatté

Winnipeg Shibari Theatre Company chose “unclassifiable” for its genre listing in the Fringe guide, and it makes me wonder if they had any clear idea of what they were trying to accomplish. The beginning was good and the end was strong, but the middle portion lacked focus.

The initial set piece features a man intricately tying up a woman, dressed in a gold-coloured skin-tight outfit, and then hoisting her up on a wooden bondage suspension frame while she is seated in the lotus position.

After this, one man gives a short introduction explaining that this group wants to give people a behind-the-scenes peek at their activities. He also explains that he is “not an actor”, which made me wonder if this is “theatre.” He passes some ropes around to the audience and encourages them to move up closer to the equipment if they want to.

What follows is like peeking into a workshop, where almost a dozen people are engaging in tying-up activities. Most involve men tying up women, but there is at least one example of a woman tying herself up and managing to swing on one of the frames all by herself.

The narrator repeatedly called for the electro-style music to be turned off or down, but it continued. Was this a technical glitch or was the show trying to communicate something? The man walks around to talk to people in the audience and collect the ropes that have been circulating around the house.

During this time, I had an interesting one-on-one with him about the different types of rope that they use, and I appreciated that. Unfortunately, it was also during this middle part of the show that there was much audience chatter going on, as there was little to truly engage them.

Fortunately, dramatic focus returns in the last set piece. All but one man and one woman leave the stage, the lights are dimmed, and a string rendition of Every Breath You Take replaces the generic techno music.

The woman drops her robe and appears topless. The man blindfolds her and gently ties her up and lifts her on the frame. Later, he gently lowers her, unties her, and gives her a hug.

This was by far the strongest part of the show, especially for the palpable sense of relationship between the participants, both as characters and as performers.

Konrad Antony