Passengers

Performance, Play
The 7 Fingers
Written, Directed and Choreographed by Shana Carroll
Composer and Musical Director: Colin Gagné
American Repertory Theater
Co-produced by TOHU (Montréal, Canada) and ArtsEmerson
Loeb Drama Center
Harvard University
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
September 2-26, 2025

Lyrics: Colin Gagné, Shana Carroll; Scenic Design: Ana Cappelluto; Costume Design: Camille Thibault-Bédard; Lighting Design: Éric Champoux; Projection Design: Johnny Ranger; Sound Design: Colin Gagné with Jérôme Guilleaume

With Victor Crépin, Eduardo De Azevedo Grillo, Isabelle Diaz, Marie-Christine Fournier, Téo Le Baut, Amanda Orozco, Michael Patterson, Basile Pucek, Santiago Rivera, Méliejade Tremblay-Bouchard

Productions by The 7 Fingers (sometimes identified by their French name [they are a Montreal-based company] Les Sept Doigts de la Main – The Seven Fingers of the Hand) are filled with talented circus performances and woven into a narrative stew that embraces and colors the goings-on throughout. I first saw them in Boston fifteen years ago when they were just starting out and were brought to town by the then-new ArtsEmerson, which invited the company back multiple times in succeeding years. At the outset, their productions were striking and original, giving a sense of how well-integrated and intimate their settings could be. Themes which couch each performance give a sense and essence to them, but they are punctuated throughout by marvelous circus acts, all done with compelling grace and composure.

I had actually seen Passengers just before the pandemic at ArtsEmerson. It was terrific then, and the current performance, the first of its kind at the American Repertory Theater, is exquisitely done. The ART had incorporated design, choreography and performances in its production of Pippin quite some years back, but this is the first time that a fully staged production by The 7 Fingers themselves has appeared there.

The current rendition of Passengers contains all of the motifs of The 7 Fingers repertoire, but amps up the quality of choreography and stagecraft to make a wonderful mix. The music by Colin Gagné with sound design by him and Jérôme Guilleaume is beautifully varied and stimulating. It ranges from poignantly appealing combinations of strings evoking a sense of the longing that infuses the theme of the show, to wildly evocative and catchy jazz tunes, sometimes touching on the edge of klezmer or tango. Multiple vocals added by performer Isabella Diaz are beautifully done – she has a rich and compelling voice. (Check out some of the music from the show.)

The main theme of the current production is, in a word, travel, evoked by the title Passengers, which suggests a whole array of associated ideas: movement, community, dislocation, destiny, interdependence, trust. One of the great things about this performance – like the other 7 Fingers shows I have seen – is that it brings out its groups of hinted at subtexts with poetic flexibility and a sense of an open text ready for creative assimilation.

A wonderful set of projections designed by Johnny Ranger, mostly displayed above the straightforward but ingenious main set designed by Ana Cappelluto, suggest travel and movement in its various forms. It changes continually and is a work of art unto itself. As well, the brilliant choreography by Shana Carroll, who also wrote and directed the show, gives a vivid sense throughout of the collective and coordinated movements of passengers on a train. The mutual swaying, bouncing, leaning, interacting and riffing off of one another is constantly amusing and stimulating and astonishingly realistic.

In this sense, the whole show is a kind of dance that embraces the various acrobatics and other circus acts that provide the punctuation within it. All of the performers, in addition to being expert at their respective circus acts, are also great movers and dancers. The intoxicating lilt and spirit of the show prevails throughout and the community of performers, under the nuanced and pointed guidance of director Carroll, contribute exquisitely to the collective result.

An interposed riff on Einstein’s theory of relativity taking off from his use of trains in describing what might happen to light, and to time, when traveling, add extra potency to the poetic brew.

And then, of course, there are the circus acts, multiple and stunning, and so overwhelming that it will not be easy to account for all of the remarkable talent.

Méliejade Tremblay-Bouchard works with hula hoops but with an intricacy and power that makes the singular twirling of one turn into a symphony of rotations, sometimes happening on all of her limbs, absolutely hard to believe. Integrated are dances and bends with her and other performers bouncing through various hoops while she manipulates them, just to add to the drama. And dramatic it is, constantly new and diverse.

The balancing and suspended trapeze acts are various and daunting, with Eduardo De Azevedo Grillo holding down the strong guy role and Marie-Christine Fournier – among others – providing the lighter end of the team, both wonderful, graceful and impossible to look away from.

Santiago Rivera does things with small balls that challenge one’s belief structure, with various of them rolling around his shoulders and back and then making their way into the air in multiple numbers. He does things with four balls that tingle with their complexity and fluidity. But more than that, the troupe gets in on his act and there are multiple juggling talents among all of them, passing the balls back, forth and around, as though it were part of their common breathing. It’s not easy to who or how many fingers pinpoint who does what in support of Rivera, but they do it exquisitely well.

The pole act is always a favorite with this troupe, and in this production is managed by Téo Le Baut, who takes one’s breath away by sliding head first down the pole and braking just before crashing into the stage – quite thrilling and unsettling. I have seen the same act in practically all of the 7 Fingers shows and it still rings bells.

The suspended dual cloth routine is also one that The 7 Fingers has employed for years and it’s always stunning to see the ingenuity with which the acrobats wrap their arms and legs in the cloth and unravel themselves like yoyos, also coming perilously close to contact with the stage.

This is just a taste of what one experiences in this ninety-minute, fun packed, and exquisitely moving performance. It’s not really a play, but a performance with a suggestive narrative, a kind of poem-in-motion which gives a vivid sense of the dramatic interchange, the social interdependence, and the existential challenges of moving through time together.

I happened to catch the show on opening night and had the pleasure of meeting and chatting briefly with writer and director Shana Carroll and 7 Fingers founder Gypsy Snider. As well, I got to meet the very strong, graceful and charming performer Eduardo De Azevedo Grillo, and got to hear Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, introduced by American Repertory Theater Diane Paulus, give a tribute to The 7 Fingers and the American Repertory Theater, and to underscore the sense of collaboration between Massachusetts in Canada in many ways, but, on this particular occasion, with respect to the arts. Quite a celebration all around!

Overall: Great – go see it!

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)