ARCHIVE EDITOR'S NOTE --- The following reviews and previews concerning Worm-Hole are in connection with Niki's appearance at the 2002 Seattle Fringe Festival held from September 19-29 in Seattle, Washington, USA.
COURAGEOUS & BEAUTIFUL --- Niki McCretton's Worm-Hole is a courageous, sparsely beautiful work, detailing in precise movement and gesture the sameness of routine in the life of a cloistered nun driven mad by the confines of her ascetic life. It's the type of stripped-bare theatre that gives the viewer pause from a daily diet of sensory and informational overload, and a glut of cultural excess. Here, we are asked to focus our attention on one thing - the human struggle to parcel out a bit of reverence, focus or mindfulness, free from distraction, desire and appetite, and how that can turn so easily into obsessive self-effacement or capitulation into chaos. The low-ceilinged, confined space of Theater Schmeater is a perfect venue for this work.
(Victoria Millard - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 21 September 2002)
TAPESTRY OF RARE BEAUTY --- Worm-Hole is an intimate exploration of one woman's quest for personal fulfillment, only to discover that she has been betrayed by the very things she holds most dear, and that the gods she worships are false. Through an exquisite combination of dance, mime, mummery and delicate athleticism, Niki McCretton takes us on an emotional journey of self-discovery as her character comes to realize that the object of her devotion is soul-less and devoid of true meaning, that her destiny lies elsewhere, and that enlightenment truly comes from within. Utilizing a wide vocabulary of movement and expression, and a set where every object has meaning, McCretton paints a tapestry on stage of very rare beauty. Anyone incapable of being moved by this performance should check for their name in the obituaries.
(Gil T. Boy - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 21 September 2002)
ABSOLUTE TREASURE --- I agree with you, Gil. This is an absolute treasure. I've seen a good deal of the fest this year and this is the one I keep talking about.
("Rob" - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 23 September 2002)
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS IN ONE-WOMAN ACT --- Solo performer Niki McCretton's Worm-Hole defies critical notes. It's mostly wordless, it's intensely physically structured, it's dance moving on the edge of theater and it's visceral psychodrama - which is to say practically nothing about it. The play action is this: A young woman, dressed as a spiritual novice, enters a room. She pulls white draperies off a number of shrouded objects revealing one large table, one wooden chair, two theater seats, a picture frame holding a Time Magazine cover of Einstein and a full-length wall of shelves filled with different-sized, lidded boxes. The woman begins a series of daily rituals - cleaning, praying, reading, eating, sleeping. As one day slides into the next, these stylized, almost robotic movements gradually shift in rhythm and meaning. If theater means words to you, this piece will drive you nuts. It might still drive you nuts - the endless repetition of Mark Bradbury's music can be numbing, and McCretton's "great comic talent" - a program quote from Prince Charles - is, like Charles, kind of agonizing and repressed. But hang in there. Everything McCretton does on stage, she earns. Her body control is awesome. This is fierce theater from somewhere else - there is nothing American about it.
(Richard Wallace - The Seattle Times - 24 September 2002)
UNPREDICTABLE --- This is so very strange. Absolutely nothing predictable. I loved it. See this. It's theater you'll rarely see.
(Amy C. - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 25 September 2002)
SHORT BUT SWEET --- Wow!
(Jeff Crane - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 25 September 2002)
TRULY REMARKABLE --- I didn't want to be fringing at the time I went to see this and I truly had a remarkable experience in the theater. See this before she flies away to another land.
("Rachel" - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 25 September 2002)
INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING --- This is an intriguing movement piece about an English novice devoted to her daily rituals of exercise, modest bathing, reverent cleaning, writing and waiting to be visited upon by holy enlightenment. Alternating between fluid gestures of pious genuflexion and whimsically comic scenes eating her Cup Noodles®, performer Niki McCretton creates a physical piece that is visually and intellectually stimulating. As she blissfully goes through her day, each aspect of her life is neatly compartmentalized and stored into boxes. But how long can the human soul thrive on habitual order, performing the same mundane routines day-in and day-out? This solo show becomes a metaphor for what is truly meaningful in life as the cloistered nun begins to discover the real source of her own inspiration.
(Kathy Hsieh - Seattle Fringe Magazine - 25 September 2002)
A FIERCE REACTION --- Having followed Niki McCretton's Fringe experience through Western Canada, Minnesota and now Seattle, I have noted with great interest (and often amazement) the many and varied positive critical comments from both reviewers and audience members alike concerning her performance in Worm-Hole. It seems that the majority do not have any difficulty being inspired to write "critical notes". No one asks that you be a student of movement-based theatre in order to understand what the artist is creating onstage, but to use one's own ignorance as a slingshot by which to sully an artist's performance is being completely dishonest. The repetition of the actions, the routine, even the music, is designed to draw the viewer into the world of the character, to invite you to feel what she feels, to empathically experience her joys and her sorrows, her exhilarations and her frustrations. There is little verbalization in this performance because none is necessary. Niki conveys a wide range of emotion through facial expression, body language and general physicality. Her ability to blend slapstick with delicacy is in the best tradition of that most venerable of institutions, the circus. Her ability to captivate her audience with pathos and poignancy has reminded me of the great Emmett Kelly - and there was nothing "agonizing or repressed" about his comic talent! And this may come as shocking news, but there are contemporary/interpretive dancers, mimes, mummers and physical artists performing "fierce theatre" all across America - and they are all-too-often ignored by a media that "just doesn't get it". I applaud them for their dedication, and I have the greatest admiration for Niki McCretton for having the guts to take creative risks for the benefit and enjoyment of others.
(Robin Chase - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 25 September 2002)
SAY WHAT? --- Creepy and brilliant.
(Georgie F. - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 26 September 2002)
TOP DRAWER --- A novice enters a nunnery, carefully locking the door of her cell, puts away her tiny suitcase, and gingerly explores the furniture and routines that are to be her life forever. She falls into a pattern of eating, cleaning, praying and calisthenics. The music that accompanies these activities recurs in step to her actions. In places it is too loud, strident and unpleasant, but it seems to fit what’s happening. Gradually, her routines start to morph; she reaches in a different way, or pauses to feel something she has not felt before. As these changes occur, she discovers objects stored away in her room that arouse curiosity, and then stimulate experimentation. All this progresses slowly, but by the end she is quite the different person than we saw an hour earlier. Throughout the piece, she gradually builds up an explosive repertoire of physical activity until eventually, she is bouncing around the room, over and under the furniture, spanning gaps with her body, straining to be released. She only speaks about five words throughout, the last being "lady". But no words are needed; the imagery, energy and imagination of the action speak eloquently. Top drawer work, directed by Judy Preston.
(Joseph E. Boling - Theatre Puget Sound Message Board - 26 September 2002)
WORKS FOR HIM! --- A definite highlight of the Festival. I really enjoyed this piece. Theatre without words works!
(Jeff Gardner - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 27 September 2002)
YES! YES! YES! --- Yes brilliant and Yes! Fierce and YES FUNNY!! (If you don't think so, perhaps some time in a cloister is exactly what you need?!)
(Vince H. - Seattle Fringe Website Reviews - 27 September 2002)
PREVIEW --- Niki McCretton from England created and performs this well-praised movement-theater piece, a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, about a woman "trapped by her own devotion to a diet of dried food and high expectations."
(Misha Berson - Seattle Times - 13 September 2002)
PREVIEW --- Every year at Fringe time, there is what might be called "pre-Festival buzz" - informed speculation among staff, volunteers and regular attendees as to which shows are the most promising. This year, the Fringe roster includes 22 productions from out-of-state. Here are 10 shows performed by companies that are probably new to Seattlites. They have all been the subjects of positive pre-festival buzz: Worm-Hole, a comedy of religious aspiration, written and performed by Niki McCretton of Bridgwater, England.
(Joe Adcock - Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 13 September 2002)
PREVIEW --- Speaking of potentially fascinating shit: Writer/performer Niki McCretton is coming all the way from Bridgwater, England to share what's been described as a "laugh-out-loud fusion of physical theater and dance". In Worm-Hole, a religious novice wrangles with the theory and practice of her devotion, and enlightened hilarity ensues. When Worm-Hole appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest, the Edinburgh Festival News gave the show a whopping five stars and demanded that everyone "see it now". As for the rule-breaking $14 ticket price, consider it an import tax.
(David Schmader - The Stranger Magazine - 19 September 2002)
HE GOT THE POINT --- Niki McCretton is certainly a talented dancer, actress and mime, but Lord, does this show ask a lot of the audience. Dressed as a cloistered nun in front of a wall of open shelves, each containing a neatly covered box, and each box containing another element of her regimented life. Slowly, ever so slowly, we are introduced to her daily routine of polishing the furniture, doing exercise, eating dehydrated noodles in a cup, washing herself, changing the Time Man-of-the-Year photo on the wall, engaging a solemn red book and generally moving from task to duty to ritual. With repetition and some variation in pace, we do get the point (oh, do we get it!) that this is becoming insufferable. That, of course, leads to acts of personal liberation that literally take her out of her habit, and eventually the cell. It's all very artistic, quite competently if not expertly performed, and a long, slow ride on a very short train.
(Jerry Kraft - Aisle Say - September 2002)
Courtesy Seattle Fringe Festival
