THE BRIDGE. To 29 August.
Edinburgh
THE BRIDGE
by Paul Pinson and Roxana Pope
Boilerhouse Theatre company at Old College Quad 21-22;24-29 August 2004
10pm
Runs 55min No interval
TICKETS: 0131 662 8740
www.uefo.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 August
Spectacular in its theatricality, bringing performance, music and imagery together to present a story with punch.This piece occupies familiar ground for Boilerhouse. Both set and production concept are similar to last year's outdoor Sister, Sister. But in place of the open, sea-windswept Ayrshire coast, here they are wrapped in the old stone walls of Edinburgh University. And they use the environs aptly for the major new element in the story, drawing on the post-Yugoslvia slaughters.
"There's a different look in their eyes now," says one of the two young women, friends since childhood, of the people around. It 's a statement capturing an underlying horror of the days of 'ethnic cleansing'; people who had lived contentedly together became, near instantaneously, vicious enemies, allowing the worst imaginable to be done to former friends and neighbours.
This, even more in a way than the surface terrors, was the horror of the Balkans conflict. Who, given fear and propaganda can be sure they would not respond the same way?
The Bridge captures this, though through a friendship that survives Samra and Aida's separation - which is symbolised by the soldier, venal and brutal, guarding the bridge that once linked but now separates them.
This huge open space is no place for psychological nuances. Deprived of her friend, the other girl does not know why she takes up a rifle, dons a uniform (as has her brother before her) and mounts a tower to snipe at anyone who moves.
Creepily, searchlights prowl round the space, exposing potential victims to her sights. Even celebrations of apparent peace can be cut short by a gunshot from someone who's life has been disfigured by loss of her best friend. This response is not excused, but is convincingly presented as part of the war process.
Two other things make the piece a theatrically vivid recreation of a conflict already examined in British theatre (Communicado's Zlata's Diary being a recent Scottish piece based in a childhood account and also featuring a bridge as focus of danger).
One is the way its story binds the multi-media elements. A female narrative voice looks back to happier days imaged on video projections. Yet the opening memory, and picture, is of grandad smoking untipped cigarettes - their smoke curls upwards on screen. There's something rough-edged about that 'untipped' which echoes when the rural images give way to rubble, and the curling smoke is part of the battle debris.
And, most spectacularly, there's the element that makes the idea of this being familiar ground inappropriate. For performers Chantal McCormick and Jennifer Paterson are aerial artists, who soar, swoop and swing through space, high above the floor.
Strapped to harnesses that give an initial springy, trampoline-like, movement they're soon way up in the air, friendship's joys and childhood exhilaration expressed as they climb, fly, push and link with each other. (Later the movement arises from the destruction war brings.)
It makes for an astounding opening sequence and it's testament to the company's integration of story and theme that what follows, if less physically visceral, remains gripping and humanly moving.
Samra: Chantal McCormick
Aida: Jennifer Paterson
Soldier: Jonothan Campbell
Chorus: Queen Margareet University College Students
Directors: Paul Pinson, Roxana Pope
Designer: Allan Ross
Aerial Designer: Jonothan Campbell
Lighting: George Tarbuck
Video Artist/Editor: Ian Dodds
Composer: Jim Sutherland
2004-08-21 11:24:45