Elizavieta Bam: Creations Diving Horse: Edinburgh Fringe.
Elizavieta Bam: Creations Diving Horse: Gateway Theatre, Elm Row Edinburgh.
0131 226 0000 www.edfringe.com
1 Hour 20 minutes. No Interval.
A mysterious exploration of the mysteries of Life and Death.
Based on a 1920's text by a Russian poet who ended his days in a lunatic asylum (and we know what that used to mean in Russia) this work still has the power to challenge and shock in this new Canadian stage version.
The Elizavieta Bam of the title is a young woman challenging the rule-makers and enforcers. That we recognise the strange country the characters inhabit as a place of our own imaginations is less important than where the characters actually are. The work is by turns difficult, enthralling, confusing and charming: all the time we are being invited to make a journey to get at the truth.
The company sound and look terrific, using all the armoury of theatre; physical and vocal skills, spot-on timing and the best physical presentation with set and costumes to take us into this wierd world.
The movement is precise, speaking and disciplined. Voices that speak a text in both French and English lift into poetry while always catching at the corners of our interest. Costumes create a world that is European and sophisticated; the bride wears a cross between bondage and a strait jacket but is still in white. Masks appear both frightening and beautiful.
The set is three huge constructions that provide levels, nooks, and spyholes in their geometrical shapes. They glide silently, smoothly, precisely placed so as to match and use the subtle and sensitive lighting design.
This is the Theatre of the Absurd but it is anything but the attenuated stuff we are used to this term describing - here is terror, pain confusion and loss. There is a North American sensibility combined with a theatrical skill that is universal.
Out of the gloom come answers as well as questions. A refrain through the piece asks "What just happened?" . As an audience we often cannot say but we know what it felt like.
With:-
Caroline Binet, Jocelyn Caron, Phoebe Greenberg, Gaetan Nadeau, Alexis Roy, Warren Slim Williams.
Text by Daniil Harms.
Directed by Oleg Kisseliov.
Set by Oleg Kisseliov.
Costumes Louis Hudon.
Lighting David Perreault Ninacs.
Sound Rob Denton.
2003-08-13 09:21:15