THE ELEPHANT VANISHES. To 25 September.

London

THE ELEPHANT VANISHES
by Simon McBurney

Barbican Theatre To 25 September 2004
4;7-11;14-15;17-18;20-25 September at 7.45pm Mat 25 September 2.30pm Sunday 5,12 September 5pm
Post-show talk 9 September
Masterclass 21 September 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 45min No interval

TICKETS: 0845 120 7511
www.barbican.org.uk/bite
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 September

Highest-order theatre, with a rare mix of completeness and originality, from a company 21 years on the road.21 years can be geriatric in theatre. Plenty of time to become institutionalised, routine. Theatre de Complicite's clearly been downing the Elixir of Youth. They may be working on a far larger scale than in early days, but their artistic vision stays ahead of any game in town.

This piece, based on 3 stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, brings them as close as they've been to the style of Robert Lepage (objects, images, cool playing). Yet Simon McBurney's production remains every inch his own work. Each story opens in the reality of modern urban Japan; a zoo closes, hunger strikes a couple deep in the night, insomnia. (The whole show opens with a faux-naïve display of theatrical clumsiness, a supposed delay in making the technology work).

The pattern throughout is one of movement from such normality to interior questioning, refracted through a low-key acting style surrounded by increasing swathes of theatre hardwear. But the person remains the centre, whether an insomniac vulnerable in her car among projections of a deserted nocturnal car-park, or a floating figure leaning into a fridge, its door opening to reveal a volcano.

The images truly begin when a couple in bed are hoisted to the vertical. When one stands up' in bed, he's actually pointing out to us horizontally. From then on, perspectives repeatedly shift. Not only visually; characters and audience re-orientate their way through Murakami's perceptions.

The elephant's impossible disappearance disturbs the sense of reality in a salesman devoted to selling superficial consumer happiness. A tornado sweeps onto screens when sudden hunger strikes like The Wizard of Oz twister. Such images avoid the simplistic by brilliance and timing (which brings a sense of inevitability). And they provoke thematic development - in one strand, unexpected humour too - as the action leads to speculation on the nature of perception.

Threads from the supposedly spontaneous intro. recur. Images of light (Tokyo is the world's brightest city) are picked up throughout video sequences of bright-spotted night-time cityscapes, car headlamps burning into the audience till the stories and wizardry evaporate to leave a battery of lanterns exposed.

Every moment adds to the texture, and despite plentiful rivals in this field Elephant never feels derivative or self-promoting. BITE is the Barbican's International Theatre programme; with this show it has world-class theatre at its most impressive.

Cast:
Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Atsuko Takaizumi, Yuko Miyamoto, Keitoku Takatam Ryoko Tateishi, Kentaro Mizuki, Yasuyo Mochizuki
Child in video: Masaaki Yato

Director: Simon McBurney
Designer: Michael Levine
Lighting: Paul Anderson
Sound: Christopher Shutt
Projections: Ruppert Bohie, Anne O'Connor
Costume: Christina Cunningham
Associate director: Catherine Alexander

2004-09-06 16:58:32