Steven Epp, Kenzi Allen, and Nathan Keepers Photo by Dominique Serrand

The second thing you can count on in a Moving Company production is that, with the addition of words to movement, a challenge is posed, asking us to meet them halfway to receive the meaning in what we are seeing and hearing. Their work draws us in as partners in forging an understanding of the matter. This does not always make for the easiest of theatregoing experiences, but it can make for one that is extremely rewarding, in which the flow of feelings elicited, be they elation, distress or calm, are the co-creation of the audience as well as the artists.

So it is with At Low Tide, The Moving Company's most recent work, now being staged at the Southern Theater. The piece has been collaboratively conceived and written by Steven Epp, Nathan Keepers, and Dominique Serrand, all core members of The Moving Company. Serrand directs as well as having designed the set and sound elements, while Epp and Keepers perform along with Kenzi Allen and Maggie Chestovich. Once seated, we await the start of the play, noting the simple features of the stage. On the left side is a long board balanced at its midpoint on a bucket; on the right, three rectangular cubes about the size of a kitchen island counter, and behind them a sculptural piece that looks, at first glance, like it might be the peak of a mountain. None of this offers a clue about what will follow.

The play begins without warning as a thunderous crash sounds and three actors hurtle onto the stage. Allen races about in loops, her limbs arcing with a potent blend of grace and forcefulness. Her flowing gown beneath a loose-fitting coat (the evocative costumes are by Sonya Berlovitz) creates waves that encircle her body, forming the image of a great spiral ricocheting about the landscape of the stage. Epp and Keepers' moves are jerky and angular, neither occupying much stage space while Allen occupies it completely. As things begin to shift, Chestovich startles us, appearing from beneath Epp's legs and proceeds to bite one of them before scampering away. Did we just see that?

We discover in due time that (among other things) Chestovich is a dog named Arg (short for Argos); Epp is at times a table, at other times reverts to being the tree from which that table was created; while Allen, given the name Lucy, is the wind that, in concert with the pull of the moon, draws tidal waters first over, away from the shore. Keepers, being unidentified, appears to be one of us–humanity. The passing days are numbered, and as they pass, themes emerge. Life forms arrive first in the sea and then on the land as the retreating tides reveal it. Life acquires movement, forms relationships, devises language, beliefs, gods and hierarchies. It has the bearing of a creation myth, dependent on the ebbing of the tide to provide moist, fertile ground to build upon, with knowledge that an ebbing tide will return and cover up what it has revealed.

The actors alternate in being at the center of different tales within the whole, revealing their desires, their memories, their beliefs, and their unanswerable questions. Through their stories we gain an understanding of how the world appears to them. They experience seasons and recurring cycles, youth and age, creation and loss. Writing allows their experiences to be recorded and last beyond their given time.

Experiences give birth to empowering concepts. For example, at a point in the story the upstage wall is identified as a barrier, with the realization that there is more world beyond it. Keepers finds a tiny hole in the wall–visible to the audience, though unnoticed until this very moment when we need to see it–and, taking a spoon (one of several props hidden discretely on the set), he begins to spoon away at the hole. He acknowledges that the work is painstakingly slow and that it will take time, but he persists. He tells us the word for what he gains from this experience: hope.

As in all Moving Company work, At Low Tide does not feel like a scripted text to which movement has been added during the process of blocking the action on stage. Physicality is baked into the play as much as words. Marcus Dilliard's lighting design and Serrand's sound design, a mix of classical music and sounds from nature, are similarly integrated into the storytelling, forming a whole which indeed is greater than the sum of its parts.

This of course includes the four dynamic and tireless actors, who each bring a gift for evoking feelings and ideas through their physicality, along with keen timing and wit. They are generous with their attention to one another and to the audience, creating a path for us to meet them as partners in creating the experience that is At Low Tide. The work would be impossible without so talented and collaborative a cast.

While At Low Tide is an engaging and provocative work, it plays out as a series of ideas and experiences sequenced over the passage of time–the counting of the days–but lacks the coherence of a strong through narrative. That is not criticism, simply an observation. Who is to say if the sequence of experiences that occur over time in the real world are part of a grand narrative, or if we create a narrative to make sense of the universe's randomness? Either way, they have substance and value.

What I have described is my experience of At Low Tide on the evening I saw it. I am certain that if I see it again–and I would love to have that opportunity–my understanding would be altered, if for no other reason than my own inconsistencies would alter the part of the equation that I bring to the experience. It is fair to say that you might draw different ideas and feelings from this show's transcendent blend of movement, language and stagecraft, ideas and feelings that resonate with your life. Go and find out.

At Low Tide, a production of The Moving Company, runs through June 8, 2025, at Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please visit www.themovingco.org.

Conceived and Written by: Steven Epp, Nathan Keepers, and Dominique Serrand; Directed by: Dominique Serrand; Set and Sound Design: Dominique Serrand; Costume Design: Sonya Berlovitz; Lighting Design: Marcus Dilliard; Sound Design: Diego Vasquez Rios; Stage Manager: Nicholas Carlstrom.

Cast: Kenzi Allen, Maggie Chestovich, Steven Epp, Nathan Keepers.