For the past few years, there has only been one place on the Fringe
to go to for compelling international physical/visual theatre. Aurora
Nova has almost become a Fringe genre in itself. The shaven-headed
Russian company Derevo have been stalwarts of this kind of work. I must
admit that I have steered clear of Derevo shows this past few years,
feeling that I knew their style well enough and did not find enough in
it to excite me every time. I am afraid this renewed visitation
confirms me in that view. In Ketzal
the performers become a succession of beasts, some recognisable, others
fantastical. They are massively inventive, but always it seems to me in
the same way. Moreover, their collective appearance and often spastic
style of movement suggests to me a disagreeable echo of the
old-fashioned freak show, an impression not helped on this occasion by
the Pinhead-style topknot sported by the principal performer.
The Czech-based company Farm In The Cave, in contrast, has created a
haunting portrait of emigration into a world with no dignified
opportunities, and the impossibility of returning to one's old
homeland. The Latin title, significantly, means both "Slavs" and
"slaves". Although the narrative is gleaned largely from interviews
among the Ruthenians of eastern Slovakia, and the compelling polyphonic
songs which accompany the action come from Slovakia and the Ukraine,
the company's members hail from several Slavic countries, and the
experiences depicted are general: pressures of menial work (including
sex work), degradation, violence, loneliness. The battered old
caravan-trailer which the company manoeuvre around the stage serves as
home, prison and often as a huge percussion instrument. The final
scenes of mournful communion and elegy set the seal on an account of
experiences etched into the collective consciousness of the Slavic
peoples over centuries.
Written for the Financial Times.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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