Sometimes you can see more in the darkness.
That’s something Michael Marlin realized while visiting friends in Las Vegas in 1986. Out in the desert in search of Haley’s Comet, away from the city lights, he could clearly see the light of the universe.
“I was utterly taken by the Milky Way Galaxy,” Marlin said.
Tonight at 7:30, Marlin hopes to share that sense of awe and reverence with his show, Luma: Art in Darkness, at the Capitol Center for the Arts.
“Our canvas is the dark,” Marlin said.
He hopes the show combines the feelings people had while playing with a flashlight under the covers or seeing a Christmas lights display or watching fireworks on the Fourth of July or swirling with sparklers.
“It’s all the same thing . . . the joy of seeing light in a dark place,” Marlin said.
In prehistoric times, he said, if you wandered too far from the safety of the firelight, there’s a good chance you might get eaten.
It has only been in recent history that people have missed seeing stars from artificial lights.
The show is a story about humans’ original fear of the dark and search for light. A mother tries to put her child to sleep.
Once he is asleep, he dreams of looking for the light.
Seven performers dressed in black, in addition to Marlin, will make the light come alive.
Luma has been touring in different variations for 20 years. The early version involved crude lighting setups and juggling. (Marlin started his career thinking he’d be a clown and was the first juggler to take to a Las Vegas stage. He’ll do some juggling as a curtain warmer tonight, too.)
As time goes on, the technology has improved. There’s not a lot of lighting equipment, Marlin said. Most of the effects are handheld.
“Part of who I am is a pioneer of new works,” he said.
The 3-D illuminated flashes of light show illusions of colors, shapes and motion.
“The intention is to have people in the dark,” he said.
For more information, visit mindofmarlin.com or lumatheater.com.
(Sarah Kinney can be reached at 369-3324 or skinney@cmonitor.com.)