Last night at Place des Arts’ Théâtre Maisonneuve, audience members were swept into a world where time is fractured, doors open and close constantly, and gravity itself seemed in question.
Triptych, the astonishing dance-theatre work by Belgian company Peeping Tom, is not a performance you simply watch—it’s one you survive, absorb, and ultimately carry with you like a fever-induced dream.
Presented by Danse Danse from April 16 to 19, Triptych is a visceral trilogy comprised of The Missing Door (2013), The Lost Room (2015), and The Hidden Floor (2017)—three interconnected works that excavate the subconscious with a precision that’s both brutal and breathtaking.
This trilogy is less a linear narrative than a series of psychological landscapes. Each piece places us inside confined, shifting environments—a hallway filled with un-openable doors, a cramped ship’s cabin or an eerily waterlogged restaurant. The characters move as if possessed, caught in loops of memory, dread, desire. And we, the audience, become voyeurs, unwillingly intimate with their inner chaos.
Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier have created something utterly unique here—equal parts physical theatre, surreal cinema, and nightmarish ballet. At times I couldn’t tell if I was watching bodies or dreams. The choreography veered from elastic contortions to brutal spasms, interspersed with moments so still they became unbearable. The performers moved like they were being pulled apart from within—by grief, by madness, by time itself.
What astonished me most was the seamless integration of set, sound, and movement. Scene changes between pieces happened in plain sight but felt like magic tricks. A floor tilts. A door refuses to open or reveals a closed wall, water begins to drip from buckets where there was once silence. You feel the space itself has a pulse.
There were moments when the audience and myself laughed—nervously, reflexively—because the absurdity cracked through the horror ( a murder scene is portrayed right from the start) . Peeping Tom plays expertly in that uncanny space between humor and terror, like watching a clown fall in slow motion into an abyss.
If you go—and you must—be prepared not just to watch, but to be haunted. It is clear that Carrizo and Chartier have pushed their piece into the far realms of the cinematic and surreal.
if you attend one of the post-show talk with the artists ( Next one to be held on Friday, Apr 18, 2025 in the theater foyer) : hearing the creators speak about how music and rhythm played a central role in their creation process will certainly deepen your experience.
Peeping Tom’s Triptych is not easily forgotten. It’s a visceral, destabilizing, and oddly beautiful experience that reminds you of what performance can be: not a story told, but a world cracked open.
I’m still not sure whether I’ve waken fully from the experience…
Danse Danse presents Peeping Tom’s Triptych: Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts
Apr 16 – Apr 19, 2025
The Missing Door: 25 min
Changeover: 10 min
The Lost Room: 36 min
Changeover: 20-25 min
The Hidden Floor: 25 min
*** WARNINGS
Abstract depiction of sexualized and physical violence, nudity, loud music and noises, haze, mature themes and language.