PAPER WORLD. To 2 July.

London

PAPER WORLD
by Mimirichi

Riverside Studios (Studio 2) To 3 July 29005
Runs 1hr 30min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 June

Paper unfolding down by the Riverside.Riverside's brief season of Central and East European Theatre, Feeast, opens with this dismal show from the 4 performances of Ukrainian mimers Mimirichi. Trouble sounds at the start when nothing happens as we listen to pre-recorded laughing voices from the troupe. A company with something to show would have been getting on with it by now.

Eventually the four emerge with the kind of white-face meanderings that pass for humour in the more mediocre stretches of Mimeland. Then they unleash the first of their two specialities messing with the audience. People's spectacles are re-arranged (one pair gets nicked by a performer, falling on the floor). Resorting so early to mucking about with the audience suggests poverty of ideas and technique. It relies on an indulgent sympathy that does not recognise poverty of invention.

Mimirichi's other speciality is ripping up the paper that forms their huge-curtain. There are a few tricks here, with paper pre-stressed to tear so as to form shadows of the performers, but it's little more than children's playground stuff because, once again, there's no great skill or governing idea. An extended section where screwed-up paper is thrown between performers and audience is especially pointless (all blank there isn't even something interesting to read).

A few inventive moments occur paper's used to create a bulging-muscled goalie out of an audience member, and a goal post for a huge paper football to score in. A female audience member is turned into a beauty queen with crown and bouquet. Near the end come a few moments showing genuine, if not outstanding, acrobatic skills.

But it's run-of-the-(paper)-mill stuff and vastly overstretched at this length. Nowhere more than at the end where huge paper sheets are passed over the audience, the way Ken Campbell had his audiences batting an inflatable elephant above their heads 30 years ago. We can only look to the companies from Poland (3-4 July) and Hungary (7-9 July) to give this mini-festival some point.

2005-07-03 12:50:06