PETRUSHKA To 31 January.
London.
PETRUSHKA
by John Agard music by Igor Stravinsky.
Little Angel Theatre 14 Dagmar Passage N1 2DN in rep to 31 January 2010.
Runs 1hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7226 1787.
www.littleangeltheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 December.
The triumph of wooden acting.
Poised between puppetry for children and adults, this new Petrushka is built around – and somewhat beyond – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet of love among the wooden folk. The first part is all Russian folk atmosphere with performers – and audience – passing bags of produce towards the onstage Shrovetide Fair where a rather severe Puppeteer rules over his show.
But, as we’ve known ever since the puppet section of the 1945 film Dead of Night, a puppet-master’s authority can be undermined, as it is here when the put-upon puppet Petrushka (a character derived, like Britain’s Mr Punch, from the Italian commedia dell’arte) eventually disappears from his own story.
A mere interval later, and he turns up in Paris where he meets another Russian self-exile, Mr Stravinsky and while the composer’s back is turned, re-ascribes the intended Rites of Spring (sic) score to his own story.
Mr Stravinsky is never quite part of the story; he comes and pretty soon goes. It’s not apparent that the music being used is a two-piano arrangement of his ballet score. For those who know about him, it’s a token appearance; for those who don’t, quite possibly a puzzling and purposeless one.
But Mr Punch – Petrushka - matters very much. The Little Angel’s space is fully used, its auditorium aisle as well as the full front-stage for the opening construction of St Petersburg’s outline in cardboard boxes, to the heights at which both puppet-master and Petrushka’s puppet nemesis appear. He’s a glamorous Moor, whose bright clothing corresponds to the red dress of the Ballerina the plain, red-nosed Petrushka loves.
However much he’s a victim in his own story, Petrushka’s the life of the piece. His sawdust-filled body seems imbued with personality, his ability to escape his own story matching the physical life he takes on in the hands of the Little Angel’s expert puppeteers.
His last moment movingly recaps his most balletic position, balanced proudly on one foot, while his spirit finally flies free, quelling the puppet-master’s superiority. For this Petrushka provokes thoughts about the interaction of creator and created, while thoroughly entertaining anyone in its 6+ age range.
Puppetmaster/Stravinsky: Josh Darcy.
Puppeteers: Ronnie Le Drew, Mandy Travis, Rebekah Wild.
Directors: Steve Tiplady, Lyndie Wright.
Designer: Lyndie Wright.
Lighting: David Duffy.
Costume: Geraldine Spiller, Keith Jury.
Sound: Hannah Marshall.
2009-12-14 15:56:05