A man (Robert Murray) draped in robes sings a Schubert aria, his knit hat, fingerless gloves and staff in hand suggest that it is some sort of wandering remnant of lost time, grieving the various bodies collapsed on the floor across the stage. As he sings, the bodies begin to roll out of view, save one: a contortionist (Kimberly O’Brian) attempting some sort of distorted self-assembly. She pulls herself apart and pieces herself back together until she approaches the man (who has been mostly ignoring her). She briefly rests her foot on his slumped shoulder as he continues to sing, and then performs a gentle back walkover to the floor before simply standing up and walking offstage with pedestrian ease. 

This is the opening scene of Circa’s En Masse, Australian director Yaron Lifschitz’s most recent work with the prolific and virtuosic company he has helmed for two decades. The show is celebrating its American premiere in Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, its second U.S. premiere with this festival following How Like An Angel in 2014. In the director’s notes for En Masse, Lifschitz describes his initial ideas as: “an incoherent gabble about wanting to combine The Rite of Spring...