Adelaide Festival Presents: Blaas

Everywhere this event has played, its protagonist has become the unlikely star of the festival. Unlikely, because it’s a large white blob.

Not a hostile one like in the old sci-fi movie, but nevertheless a blob with a distinct and at first disconcerting personality. By turns curious, inquisitive, shy, conflicted, afraid, playful and welcoming it invites us to form a relationship with it and eventually we find ourselves compelled to surrender to its strange, ineffable purpose.

Blaas means ‘blow’, ‘bubble’ or ‘bladder’ in Dutch and is the result of a conceptual collaboration between director Boukje Schweigman, who is interested in space and time; Cocky Eek, a fashion designer turned visual artist, who is fascinated by wind and air; and performer, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti, who, with her co-performers, brings the whole thing to life.

It’s an “experiential meditation on the boundaries between outside and in” and audiences respond to it in innumerable ways: for some it’s profound and intense, others can’t stop giggling for long after it’s over. All agree it’s beautiful and unique. Enter into the unknown and let the blob have its way with you.