LA CUISINE. To 31 August.

Edinburgh International Festival

LA CUISINE
by Mladen Materic and Peter Handke

Theatre Tattoo, Toulouse at Royal Lyceum Theatre 28-31 August 2002
7.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 31 August

A skilled meditation on the kitchen as the fulcrum of human relationships, though one where the ingenious parts seem to outstrip an inconclusive whole.It may turn out to be profound. But as it flies past, this montage of kitchen-life seems quite clear in its images. There's the humdrum life, the kitchen as room where banality works itself out unaffected by the expectations of grander chambers. Monotony has entered the sole of those who presumably regard themselves -or did so once as loving couples.

Or the scene can be more fantastic. A high-flying partner is hoist aloft, like an ill-balanced bellringer, as he makes for the outer door, leaving for his real world of business.

Then, there's the kitchen as domestic space invaded in time of strife. A couple are held at automatic rifle point, before he's taken out to be shot. Somehow, the kitchen strengthens the sense of violation in this blood-red scene.

The cast work finely as an ensemble: throwing plates to each other in a stylisation of preparations for a formal occasion: the wedding where the kitchen becomes also the place for a quick tryst, the Groom discovering his Bride clinched with a Wedding Guest.

The cast includes some admirable athletes, able to incorporate dance skills into this often wordless performances. As for the words when they occur, well, they say anything too daft to be said can always be sung. I sometimes think anything that would sound bathetic in English can always be tarted up by being delivered as an impersonal voice-over in French.

I suspect both writer Peter Handke and director Mladen Materic have produced work that has more drive than this Handke the likes of Kaspar and The Ride Across Lake Constance, Materic the more driven work with which Richard Demarco (loyally in the final night Edinburgh audience) first brought him to the Edinburgh Fringe in the late 1980s.

Such image-based work can turn out to have more depth than at first appears. However, the impact here is, at first seeing, muted because the images yield up their purpose with the ease of a theatrical doodle.

Congratulations though to the cast and Materic's technical skill as director and his work as designer, creating a neutral, multi-purpose yet flexible kitchen environment.

Performers:
Damien Bernard, Paul Chiributa, Thierry Dussout, Loreen Farnier, Emmanuelle Hiron, Hugo Lehmann, Cathy Pollini, Haris Resic, Sodadeth San, Tihomir Vujicic, Josiane Wilson

Director/Designer: Mladen Materic
Lighting: Bruno Goubert
Sound: Sylvain Lafourcade
Music: Haris Resic
Costume: Odile Duverger

2002-09-03 23:34:23