LIBERATED AUDIENCE LINGERS ON |
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) Photo: Celia Walmsley CREATOR: SLAVA POLUNIN at Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch From 23 Jul 2009 to 29 Jul 2009 Reviewed by Lindsay Clark, 24 Jul 2009 |
The venerable splendour of this theatre has been witness to audience responses of all sorts over its long history, but surely none more liberated than the one sparked by Slava's fabulous show. The whole auditorium becomes a playground of 'snow' and giant coloured balls, while the silent clowns who started it all watch, in their turn, the spirit of fun at work.
The excitement is typical of the mood of the whole piece, where spontaneity and reversals are key flavours in the brew .This spectacular production reaches everyone, engaging all comers and all ages for every second of its play: a marvellous choice for the opening night of the Christchurch Arts Festival.
Slava's Snowshow dates from 1993, when it enjoyed a sell-out season in London, but Russian born Slava Polunin had been at work, following his dream to re-shape clowning for contemporary audiences, long before that. He founded the Academy of Fools, of which he is president, and has been the inspiration for many festivals and carnivals throughout the world, scooping numerous awards for his physical theatre work.
For those fortunate to have participated (it is more than mere watching) in the 2002 version in Wellington, there will be familiar elements in the set and sound and some aspects of the performance itself. Most of the clowns, for example, are in those same long, battered green overcoats, wearing extraordinary hats with long earflaps reminiscent of an exaggerated hound dog, especially when they droop. The wonderfully expressive feet (elongated and thin) and the makeup too will strike a chord. The standout yellow clown, in his own baggy suit with wildly upstanding red hair at one end and fluffy scarlet feet at the other, brings inevitably different qualities to the role originated by Slava (who is not performing on this tour).
Their interactions are as subtle as ever, so crystal clear in the intention of each tiny movement or expression that absurd humour becomes instantly accessible and the surreal becomes totally believable. The unexpected crossings of the physical and conventional boundaries of the stage enhance rather than undermine our conviction. The final sequence is charged with sheer exhilaration.
There are six clowns in this company, all infinitely skilled in their art, all distinctive in their immediate physicality yet all totally compatible as the inhabitants of Slava's openly mysterious world, framed by snow spattered blue screens that can themselves behave quite oddly. Artem Zhimolokhov, Nikolai Terentiev, Yury Musatov and Tatiana Karamysheva are all from Russia. Gigi Vega Morales hails from Cuba and Jef Johnson, who played the yellow soloist clown on opening night, is from the United States.
Since their world is essentially a silent one (though when they do make vocal sound it is extraordinary), the sound score makes an important contribution to mood and meaning. From the outset, before the space has become 'live', the theatre is full of bass murmuring with suggestions of engines approaching and vast spaces to be covered on some as yet undefined journey.
Towards the end of the show, when the wonderful yellow clown enacts a poignant farewell with a being made alive by his imagination, we have felt the journey, laughed through it and loved it without wanting to explain it much further. The business of being human, one of a group, one whose world is not predictable or manageable, yet whose instincts are to try and above all to play, regardless - this is the territory we have covered.
As suggested above, the audience, in this liberated state, lingers on and - like children putting off the moment when the lights must go out - plays on ...
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