“THEN WHAT IS FREEDOM?” |
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) Free Theatre Christchurch Director: Peter Falkenberg at University Theatre, the Arts Centre, Christchurch From 27 Nov 2009 to 6 Dec 2009 [1hr 20 mins, no interval] Reviewed by Whetu Fala, 28 Nov 2009 |
"We are basing the exploration around the theme of unfulfilled (and unfulfillable desire) - a central component in our exploration of the Faust myth - and the physical vocabulary of the Argentine tango........we are also investigating the themes of "The Balcony"(Jean Genet) as they might seen to translate to our lives here in New Zealand." -Free Theatre 2009
Te Puna o Waiwhetu is the area in which the University Theatre now stands and was known locally as a 'food bowl, such was the abundance and diversity of food available here. Like its place name, Distraction Camp promises a veritable feast of music, texts, films and images.
Established in 1982, the Free Theatre objectives included the staging of "old and new rarely staged European plays in original translations......in an unusual and experimental style." (Free Theatre notes 2009)
The performance exploration begins before you are even aware of it. A CCTV (Closed circuit television) surveillance camera constantly records the entrance stairwell and door to the theatre. It is not until you enter the theatre that you see the screens that are broadcasting who is entering the theatre door behind you and what they are doing before they enter.
Red velvet, wraps the entire performance area that is dominated by a huge gold and crystal waterfall chandelier and a wall of mirror. The mirror reflects the performance area and the audience seated in front of it. Below is a wooden dance floor on which several pairs of shoes and a cello lie.
Two large bird like cages hang either side of the dance floor, in one are the robes and head-dress of a bishop in the other are a judges wig, chains and manacles. The red velvet drapes extend all the way up both walls of the theatre, enclosing audience and performance area alike. Bouquets festoon the walls and mirrors are also placed on the walls where the audience is seated.
You are at once an observer and the subject of the observation, and it's like sitting in a red lined chocolate box. You can see the lid opening and closing and are wondering if you will be 'eaten' i.e. subject to further close scrutiny or not.
The company, which includes two musicians, enters the performance area and begins in standard black out and the screens are also blank. In unison and to the rhythm of their collective breath, the cast performs a series of floor polishes with velvet cloth, punctuated by a partial yoga stretch. They are joined by the sounds of the cellist and then the piano until all are standing and are circulating in a mass tango.
The company work as one in a seamless flow but as it continues you begin to wonder if you have stumbled into a time before the theatre opened and are in fact witnessing the backstage warm up ...
The tango is noted in the helpful theatre programme as a dance that began in the brothels of Argentine. A cursory Internet search spits out the information that the Argentine brothel was one of the few places in which all classes of early 1900s Argentine society met. Musicians were employed to entertain waiting brothel customers and brought with them the latest sounds, and it seems also the latest dances from the Argentine streets.
The company tango is danced with an overall world-weary ennui. The intensity and concentration of the dancers, however, clashes with the tiny dance floor. Body mashes and collisions with walls are inevitable so a series of 'situations' flare up and just as quickly are released.
As the company tango segues into a solo song the work then continues into the exploration of the 'Balcony' text by Genet.
World-premiered in 1957 London, this work, like the original text, is set in a world where a riot and coup of the government are imminent outside; 'safely' locked inside, we are witness to what we finally work out are the inner workings of a brothel.
Unlike the original, our brothel is set firmly in 2009 Christchurch. The screens blaze into life and send a loop of Christchurch images outside and a stream of CNN like text across the bottom of the screen. A constant flow of infotainment-like updates on the start of the riot brewing around us is 'broadcast'. It includes references to, but does not name, the Hone Harawira email and also Whanganui Mayor Michael Laws.
On stage, a pedophile bishop leads his child confessor into admitting and then committing sins with him. The power roles are reversed when the madam appears and runs the 'bishop' out of the room as time is then up and the 'child' is revealed as a working prostitute.
The madam dresses her staff and then brings out a camera operator who is instructed to film "lots of low angles: he likes to look powerful."
The camera close-up of the characters on the screen should have aided to the action of the live 'wide-shot' being played out before us. Unfortunately in the 2009 media-crazed world the camera shots were a nuisance as the camera angles presented were not composition perfect, like those readily accessible at any Crusaders game at AMI stadium.
A man and two women then take us through the politics of crime in a bondage scene involving a judge, a criminal and a dominatrix. The roles are reversed and exchanged so the dominant becomes the submissive and vice versa, until all blurs. Leaving us wondering, like the characters themselves, who has the power?
The third and final scenario is that of the Nazi commandant with his bound, beaten and thonged up woman who becomes his prancing, trotting and ridden horse. He in turn is brought to heel by a combination of the madam of the establishment and the dreamlike appearance of the embodiment of his Aryan wet dream. A blonde topless Diva in his beloved Nazi outfit singing in the language of the Fatherland overcomes him. Her song becomes her weapon of domination over him.
The camera moves among the now-resigned audience at will, showing them on the screens. No-one (on opening night) even flinches at the camera's proximity or the reproduction of their images on stage.
The exploration of power as discussed through this text shows its age. The inherent misogynistic representation of whore, virgin and crone of Genet was in addition exhaustingly nihilistic. Did we need to be dragged through this beautifully staged version of the bowels of our inhumane humanity? Were we the real House of Illusions?
As the commandant is evicted from the brothel and ultimately the theatre, my companion and I just want to leave the theatre with him. The screens flick to outside CCTV. We watch enviously as he leaves and then bolts us in.
The surprise comes too late for us to care. As the tango resumes on stage and audience members are invited to join in the dance, we leave quickly. Outside the door, remnants of the surprise end litter the steps in a deft touch.
Running at just on 90 minutes it is not the time spent in the theatre that is tiring, rather it is the didactic, repetitive and depressing nature of the source text. This beautifully staged and professionally realized production brings to mind a quote by Nietzsche: "Then what is freedom? It is the will to be responsible to ourselves. "
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John Smythe