Notes from a single violin roll off the stage like uncoiling ribbons over an International Festival of Arts & Ideas audience. Three acrobats from Australian troupe Circa tumble through each other’s arms as each tries, achingly, to embrace. Their attempts slowly freeze up as they near, like poles of magnets repelling each other, echoed every few seconds as the next pair attempts to connect. No matter the effort, it fails to hold.

One diverges to find an outlet to communicate her frustration—climbing and contorting between pendulous ropes to a Bach sonata. The aerial monologue expresses her longing combined with the intimacy of knowing one’s own body. There are few somatic limitations here as artist Kimberley O’Brien, muscular and serene, breaks space into elastic shapes as numerous as the fold-outs of a Swiss Army knife. Twirls woo, flexibility and strength awe, and sudden drops leave you grasping your own seat.

After you’ve caught yourself, reposition in another theatrical place at Ordinary. Watch from the bar as spirits are measured, ice is cracked, fruit peeled, glasses spritzed, and depending on the act, drinks are mixed or shaken in motions replicating Circa’s gymnastics. Part of the menu has transformed into a cocktail series inspired by a pop-up collaboration with the Barnum Museum.

An icy blue cloud of cotton candy tops Now You See Me under bunting and tent fabrics draped from the ceiling. The handspun sugar dissolves into your stemmed glass, sweetening earthy mezcal, ancho and chipotle chiles, tamarind tang, and citrus zing. Across the room, lavender smoke fills a lantern and hides its contents. Unlatched, a purple potion of reposado tequila, chartreuse, aperitif wine, beet shrub, and mole bitters is the reward at the end of the Tunnel of Love.

As O’Brien’s performance concludes, she descends into a fellow artist’s arms. The bodily tension they have previously shown melts, briefly, into affection, connecting sweet and sour emotions as deftly as the flavors in Ordinary’s shakers. Countless hours of training have culminated on stage and behind the bar into risks and spectacles—two great shows on earth.

6/22/2019