The last time I saw some theatre involving two ripped men swimming around a tub together, it was one of the racier acts in a line-up of La Clique. With a pre-show glance at the two male performers of Primo in their bare legs, swim trunks and windcheaters, you could be forgiven for thinking aentertainment of the burlesque variety is on offer at this Melbourne festival show.
The plastic tub occupies the centre of the hall space at ArtPlay, it has windows for a floor-bound audience to stare through, and Alfredo Zinola and Felipe González’s act of graceful movement, floating and splashing through water is, genuinely, a celebration of the human form.
Fortunately, their balletic immersion sidesteps the erotic entirely. Primo is not a show for La Clique’s crowd, but for children aged two to five. The performers slide and whirl through water that changes in colour with overhead light cues, splashing to a soundtrack reminiscent of the relaxation music played at a beautician’s.
If this sounds unexciting to adults, bear in mind that the motion of limbs in water is quite the visual event for young persons still learning the surface details and movement parameters of their own bodies. At the show I attended, tiny faces jostled for the windows, pressed their palms to the walls and gasped and shrieked in transfixed delight.
Translated into adult, their responses were something like: “Oh my GOD, that guy has KNEES! How cool are knees?”; “It’s so amazing! Water TOTALLY changes colour in different coloured light!” and “Centrifugal forces cause little toys released in water to spin to a central resting place! I could die, this blows my mind!”
If the only true measure of the success of a children’s show is how many children are really watching it, Primo is a standout hit. Adults less captivated by the dramaturgy of bubbles on calf muscles can enjoy the theatrical experience of seeing their kids happily distracted, and lie back and think of La Clique.
• Primo runs at ArtPlay, Birrarung Marr Park on Sunday 19 October at 10.15am, 12pm and 2pm
See the full Melbourne festival program and look out for Guardian Australia’s live coverage
