“Have you seen Ten Thousand Hours yet?”

“Why haven’t you reviewed Ten Thousand Hours?”

“I can’t believe you haven’t watched Ten Thousand Hours!”

Seedoeatreview has been hearing this over the past two Adelaide Fringe seasons and, quite frankly, it actually put me off going to see the show. I mean, how good could it be? Was it all just overexcited Fringe hype? There was no way Ten Thousand Hours offered something different in a show I hadn’t seen before, right?

WRONG!

I dare say that the hype for Ten Thousand Hours is understated compared to what it deserves. This show is the epitome of human perfection. The combination of synchronicity, teamwork, and trust demonstrates what the human body can achieve when pushed to its absolute limits. 

There are not many props needed to make Ten Thousand Hours work. The cast's bodies are the canvas, and their movements are the artwork. Running, tumbling, balancing and defying gravity in perfect unison, they all rely on each other to put on this amazing performance piece. A script is barely needed. A live drummer is tapping away in order to keep the beat and set the tone, but mostly Ten Thousand Hours is conducted in silence. From the front row, I could hear the GOM (Gravity and Other Myths) team encouraging each other in between their set routines and loved how they clapped and cheered their fellow performers as if it was the first time seeing their acrobatic nouse. If these performers don’t like each other, they sure did a great job of acting like they do. You’d HAVE TO love the cast you’re performing with in this type of show because of the high amount of trust with which you’re allowing them to handle your body. The holding, throwing, catching and contorting involved doesn’t allow for anyone to not have faith in the person next to them.

I don’t think I blinked for the entire sixty minutes of Ten Thousand Hours!

***** Five Stars