MY LONG JOURNEY HOME. Tour to 14 May.

Tour

MY LONG JOURNEY HOME
by New International Encounters

Runs 1hr 11min No Interval
Tour info: www.nie.cz

Review Mark Courtice 5 May 2005 at Forest Arts, New Milton

This international encounter proves it - music and theatre are the universal language.The long journey is Andras's and it covers the whole of Eastern Europe and the gamut of modern European history.

During the Second World War he is abducted by the Germans, made to fight on the Eastern front and then hospitalised as mad. To keep the madman safe he is moved further and further east until he ends up in Siberia.

It's not him, but the rest of the world that's mad of course. In its madness communism and nationalism create chaos, most particularly in the matter of language. It's only when a Hungarian-speaking doctor comes to the hospital that the staff there realise Andras is not babbling. He is a sane man speaking a Hungaro-Slovak dialect.

New International Encounter are international artists, travelling across the world. Based in the Czech Republic, they are prize winners in Mostar, Bosnia and a five star company at Edinburgh's Fringe.

They are an ideal company for this ordinary person's epic journey across Europe, not just because members include a Norwegian and a Hungarian, but because their theatrical skills mean they can marshal material and use it powerfully; their musicality provides a counterbalance to the babel of language and a place to go when words fail. With one song they can create the whole Red Army.

All four company members have instinctive control of the emotional thread. They can switch from broad clowning to moving moment, can riotously invade the audience and then focus down to a little puppet with ease. They use jackets and a few props, and a clever drape that covers the stage to create snow or a hospital, a backdrop to genocide.

It's the purest storytelling skill to distil the history of a whole generation and 53 years of cruelty and war. It is the purest theatre to use a few resources to make that history so colourful, funny, energetic and exciting.

Cast:
Robert Orr, Tomas Mechacek, David Pagan, Kjell Moberg

Director: Alex Byrne
Designer: Katerina Houskova
Movement: Kasia Zaremba
Musical Director: David Pagan

2005-05-10 00:00:37