Tabac Rouge

Born into a pretty impressive circus and theatre pedigree, James Thierée (his mother’s surname is Chaplin) is able to turn the stage into a place of surrealist wonder and magic, often with the simplest idea.

Tabac Rouge, his latest work to combine dance, clowning, and physical theatre has some truly stunning moments and demands you approach it ready to let your imagination run wild.

Without the narrative thread of a story, just a group of characters using the cavernous Sydney Theatre space and playing with a beautiful, brilliant steam-punk set, the piece does drift a little too aimlessly at times but then Thierée and his team will awaken your sense of the absurd with some new devilishly clever, or funny, or charming piece of movement or a simple yet ingenious piece of theatre-making. Music is an ever present force guiding you into this world where Thierée holds dominion over a cast of oddities who execute their moves flawlessly.

Though Tabac Rouge has been created to reflect a world far more ethereal than ours, a stark reminder that art is never created in a bubble comes when during the final curtain call the French company hold up “Je suis Charlie” signs in a moving tribute to the victims of the Paris newspaper shooting.

Sydney Theatre to 23 Jan