'Emilie/Eurydice'
Previews Thursday, opens Friday: Transatlantic Love Affair describes both the name of a Twin Cities-based company known for inventive physical theater works and the romance of the couple who founded it. Diogo Lopes of Espinho, Portugal, and Isabel Nelson of Minneapolis have been creating work for six years or so, starting with "The Ballad of the Pale Fisherman," a Fringe Festival hit in 2010. The team, whose acting and dancing ensembles use their bodies to suggest props, landscapes and furniture, has proved its staying power with shows such as "Red Resurrected" and "Ash Land," a farm-set fable replete with colorfully drawn bucolic characters. Their latest work, "Emilie/Eurydice," is conceived and directed by Nelson. It's like a modern version of the Eurydice myth. In 2010, art student Emilie Gossiaux was hit by an eighteen-wheeler in New York. She fell into a coma, but with the help of her boyfriend and family, she recovered, sightless but alive. (8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 20; Illusion Theater, 8th fl., 528 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls; $17-$25, 612-339-4944 or illusiontheater.org).
Rohan PRESTON
