‘It’s about vulnerability’: Body Concert premieres at Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo

There’s no dialogue in Body Concert. That was an intentional design choice — and a happy byproduct is that it’s easier to tour.

The wordless solo show has travelled internationally since its 2014 debut, and it’s in Calgary Jan. 28-31 as part of the 40th High Performance Rodeo.

In the 50-minute performance, New York-based puppeteer Kevin Augustine strips theatre and puppetry down to the basics: movement, sound, and the human body. Without words to guide the experience, how audiences respond often depends on where the show is performed.

Some viewers are comfortable sitting with the work without explanation. Others aren’t. Augustine remembers performing in Bulgaria, where audience members wanted clearer answers.

“They really wanted to know, ‘What’s this about? What does it mean?'” he says.

They never got one. Augustine prefers to leave interpretation open.

That openness has also meant some people have avoided the show altogether. While developing Body Concert in Quebec, Augustine was told a group of refugees from Serbia should not attend.

“Somebody decided that’s not a good idea, because they thought it would be triggering — this kind of like war-torn imagery of the body, you know, without skin. And I thought, oh, that’s too bad. You know, you’re kind of presupposing how they’re going to see it.”

Some viewers find the exposed musculature unsettling. Augustine sees that response as cultural, particularly in how different societies relate to mortality.

“For me, it’s about vulnerability,” he says. “Getting beneath the surface — not anything grotesque.”

Augustine has been developing Body Concert for more than a decade, starting with hand-sculpted foam puppets made from found materials, including, famously, pieces of an old couch.

He doesn’t describe the work as a traditional narrative but as “a physical poem,” where arms, legs, and even a heart become the focus.

While he prefers to leave the piece open to interpretation, Augustine does have hopes for what audiences take away.

“There’s so much animosity going on, and I wanted to share something,” he says. “I think Body Concert tries to connect what we share as opposed to what separates us. So there’s a beauty to it. There’s this balance between, in a way, sometimes maybe this grotesqueness, but also tenderness of just what it means to be alive.

“And also a deep connection to nature, that we’re part of something bigger. But then, really, a deep appreciation for our body, its ability, its strength, its resiliency. And this theme of trying to get home, trying to connect.”

Body Concert runs Jan. 28-31 at the Studio at Vertigo Theatre. Tickets can be found here.