NOT A FAIRYTALE. To 28 November.
London.
NOT A FAIRYTALE.
Riverside Studios (Studio 2) To 27 November 2006.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 November.
Vividly original images evoke a world that’s no pretty picture.
Riverside looks east in late November, with the second FEEAST (a somewhat selective acronym for the Festival of Central and Eastern European Arts). This year an organisation called Russian ACT’s in on the deal with Moscow’s School of Dramatic Art, bringing a Cervantes derivative Sir Vantes, Donky Khot and this amalgam of Russian fairy-tales gone cruelly wrong.
The young company investigate, and subvert, various trad. Russian stories visually, so without knowing the originals, it’s hard to pick up more than a few clues. Nor is any cumulative point apparently arrived at. The piece’s virtues lie in the method of telling. At times there’s the pulsing classical music beloved of some Russian directors (here, parts of a classical Mass), and there’s the repeated tune from the first movement of Shostakovitch’s ‘Leningrad’ symphony patterned rhythmically on metal surfaces and melodically, in strained tones, by a saxophone.
But the most remarkable aspect of this show, and its most consistent feature, is the use of paint to create false bodies on the actors’ physiques. It starts from the first scene, as soon as the young company, in neutral, black clothing, moves forward, spilling objects from their battered suitcases, the repositories of tradition.
Eyes, noses and mouths are painted on bodies or added costumes, creating a series of fantastically-shaped creatures. One face is strangely-angled. To create another, a nose is painted on a blouse, with eyes (and startling lashes) on upper-arms, while a pair of lips painted on the lower arms, held horizontally one over the other, part and move to ingest and chew. Or huge faces are painted on card wrapped in cloth and placed over an actor’s face.
The result’s a variety of enlarged, set expressions at various heights. Several times air is blown through tubes to create a pregnancy, or alternately-popping eyes.
Such wealth of invention is more forceful for being made in full view, paint-pots and brushes repeatedly coming out to create the living cartoons which so aptly evoke the grotesque world built from these stories, and the dark world of human cruelty and fears that lies behind them.
FEEAST concludes at Riverside with SCLAVI – THE SONG OF AN EMIGRANT 29 November-2 December 7.45pm Tickets: 0208 237 1111/www.riversidestudios.co.uk
Actors: Elizaveta Dzutseva, Arseny Epelbaum, Etel Ioshpa, Maxim Maminov, Sergey Melkonyan, Vera Martynova, Alexandra Osipova, Anna Perezhogina, Anna Sinyakina, Leonid Shulyakov, Konstantin Terentiev, Maria Tregubova, Maria Volskaya
Director: Dmitry Krymov.
Sound: Denis Gilev.
Musician: Ivan Lubennikov.
Costume: Elena Dianova.
2006-11-29 09:54:14