I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU. To 22 February.
London
I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU
by Paul Hunter
Told by an Idiot theatre company at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) To 22nd Feb
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 6pm
Runs 1hr 12min No interval
TICKETS: 020 7223 2223
www.bac.org.uk
Review: Kim Durham 4 February
An exhilarating absurdist spin. Wonderfully quirky Physical Theatre.
This is the first time I've caught up with the Physical Theatre company Told by an Idiot, currently celebrating their tenth anniversary. I'm sorry it's taken me so long.
I'm a Fool to Want You is an exhilarating biographic spin through the life of the obscure at least to me French novelist and jazz fanatic, Boris Vian, who apparently expired in a fit of apoplexy whilst viewing the flawed cinematic adaptation of one of his novels.
From this quirky literary footnote, director Paul Hunter and the company have conjured a piece of theatrical magic. Working back from Vian's bizarre death, we are offered an interweaving of incidents from the writer's life and from the steamy revenge saga, I Spit on Your Graves, the fatal film in question.
None of it seems to be of great consequence or carries any vital narrative thrust, but what is woven along the way is a kind of miraculous and surreal theatricality. The three key elements: a brilliant design form Naomi Wilkinson the set is completely integral to the action live jazz piano from Zoe Rahman and the two central performances of Stephen Harper and Hayley Carmichael, are perfectly blended.
In its short span I'm a Fool to Want You comprises one small, perfectly executed, theatrical coup after another. Using the simplest of devices and a shifting regard for the conventions of gravity, biographical events are played to absurdist comic effect. A first sexual encounter becomes a tour de force of passionate frenzy, both hilarious and erotic a rarely achieved double effect!
The irresistable effect of jazz on both Vian and his partner Ursula is also wonderfully conveyed, particularly in Carmichael's executing of what would seem to be a Tourette's version of The Red Shoes.
The criticism made of much Physical Theatre, that it represents a triumph of style over content, might be legitimately be made here. But you feel, watching a company like Told by an Idiot, that you are seeing a new and exhilarating theatrical language being forged. I'll put money on it; in fifteen years its key members will be part of the theatrical establishment.
Cast: Stephen Harper
Hayley Carmichael
Live Music: Zoe Rahman
Trumpet: Mark Crown
Director: Paul Hunter
Designer: Naomi Wilkinson
Lighting: John MacKenzie
2004-02-05 16:32:28