A STRANGE (& UNEXPECTED) EVENT. Tour to 23 April.

Tour

A STRANGE (& UNEXPECTED) EVENT
by Bob Frith

Horse + Bamboo Theatre Tour to 23 April 2005
Runs 1hr 45min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 March at The Theatre Chipping Norton

Parade of the dead that's full of life.Words fail me. Rightly so, for this small-scale theatrical extravaganza does without speech (there are a few sung lyrics) throughout. And, while the physical scale may not be massive, Horse + Bamboo's celebration of the Mexican Day of the Dead through the work and life of late 19th century printmaker Jose Pasada makes a big impression. Reducing it to words misses the forceful theatricality.

On the Dia de Muertos in early November, Pasada returns from the grave to revisit his printmaker's shop. His life flashes before us, including tussles with a shiny, red-clad fiend. Pasada sets traps, involving a tempting jug of favourite local tipple, pulque (a kind of alco-milk). The devil gleefully turns the tables. More sinister than this comical fiend is the force of military power.

Accompanied by lively music, punctuated by songs, the piece is a colourful fantasia around Pasada's imagery. Like a recurring white horse, first seen as a mighty charger, then depicted in fearful form on a huge black sheet as a death-bearing mount and finally (in one of several brief film inserts) viewed as an empty-backed steed galloping into Pasada's shop.

There's a splendid skeletal dance of death, but if it all sounds a little grim, it's not - as the comically understated title might suggest. Characters' large head-masks have their own good-humoured edge. And there are unexpectedly hilarious moments: the devil having its tail stretched in apparent horizontal agony, or a jovial dance for a suddenly triplicated Pasada.

A few moments lower the temperature, when the fantastic parade turns into mere dumb-show. But the heat's soon back on with a wonderfully expansive imagination working confidently, though not complacently, within the style this company's honed over 27 years.

Their experience is evident in the tightness and confidence, the flow of striking images built round an apparently recondite subject. South-west England has provided a series of excellent and innovative small theatre companies with distinctive physical and visual styles and material Footsbarn, Kneehigh, Alibi all of whom have come to national and international attention. With Rossendale-based Horse + Bamboo, the north-west clearly has its own contender.

Cast:
Andrew Kim, Hayli Clifton, Kathy Bradley, Nicky Fearn, Sian de Lier

Director/Designer: Bob Frith
Lighting: Lars Jensen
Musical Director: Loz Kaye
Choreography: Ruth Jones
Costume: Emma Mansfield

2005-03-17 06:39:15