That Night Follows Day is the quietly impressive import at the Fleck Dance Theatre (World Stage) that finished its limited run on Saturday night. Created by British theatre-maker Tim Etchells for the Belgian theatre company Campo, the 70-minute piece features a group of Flemish children aged 8-12. The most interesting aspect of That Night Follows Day is the opportunity to see children onstage without the physical presence of adults. This unique performance holds a mirror up to the ways in which kids are initiated (whether they want to or not) into the educated, “adult” world, and the different ways they absorb the information doled out by grown-ups.
Structured mostly as a choral piece with interspersed monologues, the kids mark out all the things “we” (be it parents or any controlling authority figures) have foisted onto them. Some of it is expressed in a bemused or disaffected way, other times with bitterness and irony. Just as often, the statements are weighted with love, or the simple ingenuousness that children possess so easily.
The stage design is modeled after a school gymnasium, with coloured lines on the floors and a wooden climbing apparatus near the back, upon which characters climb to watch the action downstage.
Etchells’ text is at its most amusingly self-reflexive when one of the littlest of the kids exclaims, “You’re partisan with your affections.” It’s in instances like these—where the performance draws attention to itself—that the subtext shifts. If speaking directly to the audience is a statement of the children’s power or agency, what does it mean to consider that the dialogue has been written by an adult theatre artist? To produce the precision required for this type of performance, these kids must have gone through hours of rehearsal to prepare for public viewing.
As critical as the text is, there’s another less didactic message under the surface, which suggests that the regulation and instruction by parents is a necessary evil within the complicated process of growing up. The conflict between content and execution is what makes That Night Follows Day so rewarding to think about, even if it drags during the longer, unbroken sections of speech.
Additionally, it’s a challenge for the viewer to pick up every nuance of statement with eyes drifting back and forth between the children speaking and the English subtitles projected above the stage. In some cases, it’s difficult to register the tones of voice, and in trying to read the English, many of the physical cues are overlooked. But perhaps that’s another way of defamiliarizing the adult audience—putting us in the position where we don’t completely know what the children are saying makes us further aware of our own limitations of understanding. The show’s quieter moments offer respite, as well as an opportunity to watch the kids in a more uninhibited state.
Slightly sad, but mostly contemplative in its tone, That Night Follows Day offers wonderful insight into the minds and feelings of children, not to mention the opportunity to see a group of incredibly talented kids deliver a quickly-paced performance to a foreign audience.
Rating: VVVV
