Review: CRYPTO at Bluma Appel Theatre Is Beautiful But Bleak

In Guillaume Côté's CRYPTO, playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre until May 7th in a co-presentation by Canadian Stage and TO Live, a man (Côté) has nightly visions of a mysterious beast. Driven to distraction by his desire to discover what features in the foreground of his dreams, he eventually finds himself set free by his wife (Greta Hodgkinson) to seek the cryptozoological creature. She hopes that, once he finds the object of his obsession and gives it their family name, this new taxonomy will revitalize the connection between them. After the man locates the mythical being, however, wonder soon turns to a need to possess and transform as the dark side of humanity's drive to learn is exposed.

CRYPTO's currency is in the gorgeous, unearthly movements of its dancers, from Natasha Poon Woo's frenzied taxidermist who moves as if consistently jolted by electrodes, to Casia Vengoechea's uncanny valley of physical contortion as the heretofore-undiscovered beast of renown. The latter seems to shift individual joints and muscles in nearly impossible ways and at dazzling angles, ably suggesting a creature not of our understanding (and, occasionally, something out of THE EXORCIST).

She's assisted by evocative costuming from Christopher Read, first a skintight leotard with intricate banding representing a complicated musculature. This is later swapped for a "flayed" effect of ragged white gauze exposing brilliant red patches, as both the creature and a less-pleasant side of humanity are laid bare by the excited vivisectionist.

Cote's work often uses immersive projections surrounding the dancers to great effect, and this production is no exception (video by Mirari, Thomas Payette and Mylène Chabrol; animation motion design by Joshua Ingleby). Constellations rise and stars fall in the background; tools of the surgeon's trade take form and sharpen. In the man's initial quest, undulating white lines effectively produce a feeling of movement through a landscape.

Most of these unique effects come at the beginning, cycling through later in the production. While I was glad that the show predominantly focused on the talents of the dancers over the technology, I felt that sort of interaction with the projections could have been used more consistently throughout the performance.

CRYPTO is a dark, cynical show, centred on an obsession with colonizing, naming, and claiming. The soundscape, by Mikael Karlsson, is heavy on the bass, didgeridoo-type drone, and what resembles a sonic chain saw. Early possibilities of meaningful emotional connection between characters ebb quickly, no matter how desperately the dancers cling to each other or ably fling one another about. It's striking to see this sort of clinical detachment captured within exceptional physical synchronicity.

The venality of the humans focuses our attention onto the creature's genuine expressions of pain and betrayal, emphasized in turn by the closeup projections of the rope-bound dancer. There are flashes of compassion and possibly even love from the people, but everything supposedly done for the creature's benefit are actions of conformity to the human world, rather than those preserving the creature's desires or identity. Presented for our entertainment, the bleak metaphor is anything but cryptic.

How to Get Tickets:

Canadian Stage and TO Live's CRYPTO is playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front St. East) until May 7, 2022.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.canadianstage.com/shows-events/season/crypto

Photo Credit: Sasha Onyshchenko