Ockham’s Razor: Collaborative Review – Create a True Circus Power Couple | platform

CProstitutes Moonie and Alex Harvey fell in love 24 years ago when they were training in the circus. They swore they would never work together again. “Circus couples are a pain in the ass,” Charlotte tells us into the microphone at the beginning of the show, speaking like an old friend.

Inevitably, they ended up working together, forming Ockham’s Razor Company, presenting warm, insightful and gently cheerful circus shows full of humanity and connection. They stepped back from performing to directing after having a daughter. However, the duo wasn’t quite ready to retire from the stage, and Collaborator was a final tribute. It is an ode to their theatrical life together, from the hopeful anticipation of the first day to the difficult days when nothing is in sync, illustrated through simple but expressive games, using props, ropes and some magical pendulums that make the energy waves visible.

The theme of waves and shared energy—and how one person’s energy can amplify or attenuate another’s energy—is woven through the piece. There’s a dreaminess about the leisurely pace, satisfaction through the ups and downs (#couplegoals) and a poignant soundtrack by Holly Khan that you almost don’t notice because it’s so completely integrated with the action and feeling on stage.

The heart and soul of the collaborator is when Moonie and Harvey get on the swing. In this case, the frame is a square from which you hang and slowly lift, twist, fold, balance, and shape the pastries around each other. This is not Cirque du Soleil fireworks, but an intimate, up-close physical conversation. It embodies all the trust, care, concern, deep listening to each other, physical harmony, and strength they bring to each other (and like any long-term relationship, there’s hard work too, that’s clear).

At one point, Harvey is pinned beneath the bar, the front of his foot pushed up against the metal, and Monie is sitting on top of him, her toes mirroring his toes—it’s a small detail, perhaps unintentional, but a surprisingly tender moment of yin and yang. Earlier in their acrobatics, the toe almost playfully went up someone’s nose, so it wasn’t exactly uneventful. This short piece is an attractive memento of what is clearly a beautiful partnership.