The show Fairy
Tales & Nightmares started before it began: the playback tango music set
the scene while the 5 actor/dancer/musicians were already on stage as the
audience took their seats.
I had read
in the programme notes that this show is made up of modern dance set to the
music of Prokofiev. The first music we heard after the lights went down was a
scratchy war time rendition of a patriotic Russian song so I wondered whether
the show was going to be a portrayal of that composer´s treatment at the hands
of Stalin and his henchmen. In fact there were moments when the dancers mimed
an attack on the violinist and this even included pelting him with missiles,
some of them hitting the wall behind him, some of them hitting his body or his
violin.
This theme
was not developed as the show went on but that does not mean it lost interest.
In fact I suppose this show is more of a divertissement, an entertainment which
features movement and music, not always at the same time. The show was devised
by the pianist Shuann Chai , whose incredible playing of the difficult Prokofiev
pieces deserved a better instrument than the
one used last night. Still, the piano was part of the show: moving it
around the stage marked the different scenes in the show. Shuann Chai was also story teller: her telling of the
Baba Yaga tale reminds us that fairy tales were not always the saccharin
product Disney likes to pretend. Shunske Sato is a wonderful violinist and all
round artist: how many violinists you know would allow someone to throw
missiles at their violin, be used as a foil for comedy routines, partner a
dancer in over and under movements while playing perfectly in tune, and be
smothered into “unconsciousness”, only to be revived in time to play a duet
with a film of himself playing the other part?
The
choreography was created by dancers Ederson Rodrigues Xavier and Masahiro Yanagimoto and included extended solos and duets and action which involved the
pianist and violinist. A scene like a wrestling match to grasp control of a gas
mask included drama and comedy. Movements involved mainly floor work with
angular poses. There were moments when the dancers joined the audience as
spectators to the music interludes.
These four
performers filled the stage with humour, drama and skillful interpretations of
the choreography and music and they moved between each others´ roles as the
dancers played the piano and the musicians danced.
The fifth
member of the cast is in fact a life size, dismembered latex puppet created by Duda Paiva . He, sorry it, is manipulated with such skill by Ederson Rodrigues
Xavier that he, sorry it, takes on the role of a character and is movingly
expressive.
This was an
enjoyable and entertaining show. If I
had to split hairs I would say that I would prefer to hear less of the phrase
happy ever after: it never sounds in my nightmares and in my fairytales it only
comes once, when all else is said and done.
