(Ed. Note: Today’s Rare Saturday Article is by guest writer Leslie Bateman)
It’s a small wonder no one crashed their car on the Clinch Avenue viaduct earlier this month, distracted by the spellbindingly bizarro scene unfolding on the side of The Tennessean hotel. Four dancers, each suspended in mid-air by a single cord, leapt and twirled their way down the side of the seven-story building, the crowd below gasping each time they pushed off into another soaring arc.
Vertical dancing was just one performance of many in Solastalgia’s two-night run Oct. 13 and 15. A joint production of Cattywampus Puppet Council and One World Circus, Solastalgia took audiences on a journey – literally and emotionally. Rachel Miford, executive and artistic director of Cattywampus Puppet Council, says she wasn’t exactly sure how the piece would be received. “We’ve been working on this for two years but ultimately it was up to the audience. We had to trust they would come with us on the journey.”
The word “solastalgia” is a relatively new one, created in response to climate chaos. It refers to a state of homesickness we feel when the places that matter most to us — our homes, lands, communities — are disrupted, changed, or threatened.
Act I, “The Great Unravelling Circus,” takes place in World’s Fair Park Amphitheater and explores some pretty dark, complicated themes – climate catastrophe, social injustice, socioeconomic distress – through the lens of classic big-top acts.
The ringmaster eats noodles out of a gas mask while pontificating on the various ways in which humans are authoring their own extinction. A frog nearly boils to death while her friends dangle obliviously from the trapeze above. A “capitalist” escapes from his cage to exact a totalitarian regime over the circus animals (they return him to captivity, eventually). A multi-generational Greek chorus of puppets spiral over the question nobody wants to say out loud: What if it’s already too late?
Each metaphor is more disturbing than the last, until at last a “funeral for humanity” is declared and a coffin produced. Cue, out of nowhere, a full marching band to lead a second line style procession along the water’s edge to the opposite side of the lake. There’s a ritual, in which the contents of the coffin – scraps of paper upon which the audience has scribbled their own fears – are placed in a bowl and set on fire.
That’s when the dance party begins.
What is it to hold grief in one hand and hope in the other? Now the crowd is on the move again, propelled along by horns, drums, and a collective sense of “Can you believe this is happening in Knoxville?” until they’re gathered at the foot of the hotel. The marching band cuts off and a cello soloist begins. Some children are lying flat on their back, looking up. The vertical dancers begin descending the building in huge, synchronized swings, like the pendulum of a clock.
“90 seconds to midnight,” a voice sounds over the music. “What a time to be alive.”
There’s a shadow puppet piece and, once the dancers are safely returned to earth, two towering lantern puppets emerge. The crowd follows their luminescence onto the dark lawn and surrounds them in a semicircle, singing together, “I will parade into and through these unraveling times, with you, beside you. What a time to be alive.”
What a time, indeed.
Solastalgia was a free event but you can show your support to the local nonprofits that produced it. Both are hosting big annual fundraising events in the near future.
Cattywampus Puppet Council’s Fall Ball takes place this Sunday, Oct. 27, from 5-8 p.m. at The Emporium Center (100 S. Gay St.). The theme is “Big Puppet Energy” and there will be performances by the Knox Honkers & Bangers (Cattywampus’s hot pink community marching band), a pink fuzzy carpet with puppet-razi, silent auction, local food & drink, and of course, lots of giant puppets. Funds raised will support Cattywampus’ 2025 programming. Click here for tickets and more information.
Dragonfly Aerial & Circus Arts Studio, home of One World Circus, will present Circus After Dark “Match My Freak” on Nov. 8-9 at Dragonfly’s studio (509A Dutch Valley Drive). Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. This 21+ performance is a celebration of the human form and all it is capable of – with a cheeky, burlesque twist. Click here for tickets and more information.