AURELIA'S ORATORIO. To 2 June.

Tour

AURELIA'S ORATORIO
by Victoria Thierree Chaplin with Aurelia Thierree
Tour to 2 June 2005
Runs 1hr 15min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 April at Oxford Playhouse

Wonders unfold from every corner.Aurelia is a performer, a character, a phenomenon. When called for by fellow performer Timothy Harling, she's away, flying or appearing where least expected. The search, and her adventures, in which she often shows the innocent expression of a child having fun or spontaneously surprised by new experiences, occur in a dreamlike sequence.

It begins with feet, legs, hands, arms, a head (impossible they're all connected), eventually a whole body emerging from drawers in a chest. A cake is presented, a candle lit, a shoe fitted on a foot, all by fragments from ever-opening and closing drawers - a triumph of ingenuity, control of space and co-ordination of timing.

Later, surrounded by the pleated drapes of an old red-plush theatre curtain, Aurelia swings or rests as on a hammock while a storm begins tossing the material. Harling climbs a curtain, to be sucked through it by an unseen force. It's part of the mystery of an uncertain, transformational world where events can hold inviting mystery, provide unforeseen exhilarations or turn in a moment from dream to nightmare.

A delightful snow scene turns horrific with a series of 2D snowflake creatures, the first gentle, followed by one which viciously snaps Aurelia's leg away, before a huge creature carries her off in a brief Beauty and Beast scenario. The mix of circus skill and visual fantasy, with just sufficient sense of character to suggest a dramatic scenario, gives Aurelia's visual oratorio its individual flavour. In this dreamlike progress, participants accept the moment's experience; appearances and movements come with a causeless natural quality.

There are animated objects; a melody played on chiming clocks or Aurelia's appearance in a Punch-and-Judy booth, her head filling the whole space, with an audience of puppet children, several making individual responses to her performance'.

Maybe a brief freak-show scene can seem a derivative offcut of Shockheaded Peter, the similarity emphasised by a Tiger Lillies-like counter-tenor song. For the rest, this ingenious production is a tribute to the new circus style into which Aurelia the performer was born and out of which Aurelia the stage character has emerged.

Cast:
Aurelia Thierree, Timothy Harling
Manipulators/animators: Tarzana Foures, Nicola Reese, Monika Schwarzl

Director/Designer/Costume: Victoria Thierree Chaplin
Lighting: Laura de Bernadis
Choreographers: Victoria Thierree Chaplin, Jaime Martinez, Armando Santin

2005-04-28 10:25:15