One Flat Thing Reproduced is a play for 14 dancers and 20 tables by choreographer William Forsythe. Of great theatrical intensity, the work oscillates between disorder and symmetry. It begins with a bang: twenty tables are flung onto the stage, becoming the surface and horizon for all ensuing action. Fourteen electric bodies then traverse the space in alternately restrained and explosive fashion. Amidst this chaos ordered to perfection, the virtuosity of the dancers is rivalled only by the ingeniousness of the choreography. The film is intended less as an extension of the stage performance as a reinvention. Director Thierry De Mey has turned Forsythe's choreography into an action film, using three cameras in a variety of shots and unorthodox angles.
In Spite of Wishing and Wanting reunites the rythms of Talking Heads co-founder David Byrne and choreographer Wim Vandekeybus' scenic eclecticism: humorous theatrical sequences, energetic and powerful dance and a diversity of bodies within an all-male cast. Wim Vandekeybus himself trots in as a wild horse between the ten dancers-actors, devastated by their passionate desires.