INTERVIEW: The 7 Fingers have trained their way to NYC
Photo: Passengers will be performed in New York City at PAC NYC. Photo courtesy of Alexandre Galliez / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
The 7 Fingers, the Montreal-based physical-theater company, have arrived in New York City for a multi-week engagement of their acclaimed work Passengers, which focuses on train travel and the many encounters one can have in these transitional spaces. The show was built as a signature piece for the company in the years before the pandemic, but the pause button was necessarily pushed after COVID-19 hit, making this run of dates at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) extra special.
“I’m excited, and I’m nervous, a little of everything,” said director Shana Carroll, who worked as co-choreographer and circus designer for Broadway’s Water for Elephants. “It’s always a little of everything.”
Carroll told Hollywood Soapbox that the show was first created in 2018. The 7 Fingers have built different collaborations and “extracurricular activities” over the years, but their signature shows are meant to enter their repertory and be toured around the world. These shows represent the company’s unique style and chosen genre.
“It was that year’s new creation in 2018, based on trains, and we toured it into 2019,” she said. “And we thought it would have a longer tour. Then the pandemic hit, and we had to retire it. Since then, we keep trying to bring it back because its life was cut short, which is ironic because that’s one of the themes of the show. … And also it’s just a show that we love and is very dear to our hearts, so we’ve had little remounts here and there for shorter stints. And then this opportunity came for New York, so we did a similar type of remount to bring it back to life.”
What New Yorkers will catch at PAC NYC, where Passengers continues through Sunday, June 29, is similar to the original vision of The 7 Fingers. When the company began preparing for this Big Apple production, the performers realized the particulars are similar to the 2018 version.
“The essence is there,” Carroll said. “To understand the things that have evolved, you have to really know the show. … But the really broad themes are still there. It’s a little bit timeless, too. I think there are shows where seven years later, you go, ‘Oh gosh, we really need to update this. This isn’t pertinent anymore.’ But I think this particular show, it’s about trains, but it’s also about the train ride being a bit of a metaphor for the journey of a lifetime and how it can be bittersweet and tragic and joyful and ridiculous. So there’s a little of everything in it.”
The show is built around chapters. The first 20-25 minutes are focused on departures, including those romantic goodbyes that one can find in the cinematic universe.
“We’re on the platform, which feels a little bit more cinematic and nostalgic and epic, and then we get to the next chapter, which is transit, which is a quirkier part,” the director said. “We’re on a train, and we’re sitting too close to someone. We fall asleep on them, and the numbers are a little bit more inspired by the cabin fever of being in transit.”
The third chapter is called “Dreamscape / Landscape” and focuses on the sleeping car and how people dream of leaving the train and galloping on the landscapes outside the window.
“Then there’s the final sort of arrival and a reflection when arrivals aren’t always perfect arrivals, and sometimes you don’t reach your destination,” she said. “It’s the non-cinematic version of how it’s not always these perfect, wrapped-up resolutions. That’s the structure of the show, and I think it touches both on our references of trains, even in the style of some of the pieces that are a little bit more film noir or some that are more folky and that sort of reference of train travel, and others that are more personal stories.”
The PAC NYC, one of the newest venues in New York City, is located in an interesting geographical area. Trains, namely subways and the PATH train, are nearby and perhaps the mode of transportation that theatergoers will take to see a performance of Passengers.
“For me, my entire 20s I was in Europe because I was on tour actually with Cirque du Soleil,” Carroll said. “In Europe, you’re on trains all the time because you have to get from Paris to Berlin, and you’ll just take a train. So I so often associate train travel with Europe, and so, in fact, I underestimate how much train travel is really prominent as well, especially on the East Coast. It is true that New York City is such a hub.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Passengers, directed by Shana Carroll and produced by The 7 Fingers, continues through Sunday, June 29, at PAC NYC. Click here for more information and tickets.
