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Fringe 2006 Reviews (67)
Resonance
Echo Echo Dance Theatre
Aurora Nova
*
He, Steve Batts, she, Ursula Laeubli, and a musician, Daniel Weaver,
occupied the large but empty space.
Their presence failed to enhance that space.
He steps to the centre of the stage taking off his shoes.
Silence.
She appears.
Miming some animals and he tries to guess.
Yes, it was sort of easy as it all seemed rehearsed.
Their dance lacked a soul, though at one point had an echo of inner
melody that one would expect from the movements.
This play was supposed to explore the incompatibilities that sit at
the heart of a passionate and committed relationship.
If there was passion, I must have missed it.
This production was particularly dull and the minutes dragged. That
may explain the poor attendance and the early departure of some members
of the audience.
Rivka Jacobson
The Black Jew Dialogues
Written and performed by Larry Jay Tish and Ron Jones
StageCoach Productions
C Chambers Street
***(*)
"We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to
die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are
to live together we have to talk."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
Blacks and Jews are both minority groups. 'Jews invented the ghettos
and blacks are still living in them,,' we are told. Well that may sound
like another outdated view, but in the USA, that might be true up to
a point. So, that is at least one common ground for shared memories.
Tish (the Jew) and Jones (the black guy) dig deep into their collective
family trees to fish out as many things they have in common as they
possibly can establish. It is done with entertaining humour. They even
realised that they both come from Africa! Well, the Jews left Egypt
which by all accounts is part of Africa and while there, yes the Jews
tasted the bitter flavour of slavery. However, Jones reminds his Jewish
friend that 'You know the Jews had a role in the African slave trade?'
to which Tish responds 'What did they do, cater it?' Here we learn of
the Jewish involvement with the Dutch in buying and selling slaves.
To reassure his dismayed Jewish friend that this is not a fallacious
allegation a video is shown depicting a well fed black (Jones) slave
next to Tish dressed as a 17th century wealthy Jewish Dutch merchant.
We hear of an increasing rift between Blacks and Jews in the US. This
is unfortunate as the two groups helped each other in the past. As Jones
reminds Tish, there are pictures depicting 'black soldiers at the end
of World War II helping Jews out of the death camps' to which Tish responds,
'And right after that Jews in America took up the cause of civil rights.
We began to stand-up and stand arm-in-arm with blacks taking their injustice
as our own'.
The pre-recorded pseudo-documentary screening of some of the issues
raised in the sketches are effective and funny. Take for example the
real interviews conducted in the street of Manhattan, by the two holding
puppets representing black and white individuals. That technique seemed
to have charm passers-by to express less guarded views on Jewish and
Black issues. In the sketch where Jones asks God to answer his prayer
to have a taste of freedom now, Tish appears on the screen against a
fluffy white background as God taking note of the request. The interaction
between 'God' on the screen and Jones on centre stage communicate a
message in a witty and amusing way.
The two do not shy from any of the prejudices their respective communities
have towards the other. They air views and thoughts by listening to
each other. They discover that they shared a respectable number of values
and experiences.
Some of the sketches seasoned with a good measure of humour that highlight
what many of us already know, yet fail to see, the numerous ways minority
groups could bridge over ignorance filled with prejudices.
I cannot resist but add from this comedy one of the views that eclipsed
many of the Fringe's political 'plays', 'What do you get if you mix
fear and stereotype?' Well.. 'American foreign policy'.
It seems hard to refrain from replacing one stereotype with another.
Rivka Jacobson
Sclavi: The Song of an Emigrant
Farm in the Cave
Aurora Nova
*****
The lights, the music and the dramatic appearance of some of the characters
from the belly of the small gypsy caravan placed in centre stage, provide
the keynote to this brilliantly directed and performed, gripping tale
of an emigrant's homecoming.
He, an economic migrant (Gastarbeiter as the German translation would
have it) left wife and young daughter to greener pastures (NY) to make
money. Once that was achieved after years of hard labour, he returns
home to the wife and daughter he desperately missed. He comes back to
the village longing to continue from where he had left off. But, alas,
those he wished to re-embrace see him as a stranger, an outsider whom
they taunt and reject.
The location is a village in Eastern Slovakia, a milieu that inspired
the music and elements of the tale. 'Sclavi' means Slavs as well as
slaves. This dual meaning is explored through the various media the
stage offers, but here the marriage of music, song and movements triumph
above all else. The dances may best be described as an amalgam of tribal
African as well as South American dances where beat and body are one.
The movements poignantly and exquisitely explore emotional as well as
physical desire, rejection, rape and disillusionment. Every note is
pulled, explored and synchronized by a movement.
The songs are based on poems, letters of Slovak emigrants going back
to the 19th century and Ruthenian emigrant songs, while the tunes are
a mixture of old folksongs and rap beat dominated by doleful nostalgia.
Although the press release states that the words that accompany the
music are used more for their sounds than for their actual meaning,
the sounds and the manner in which these words were uttered provided
a moving ambiance in which the returning emigrant faces lost love and
affection in a way that we the audience witness the sounds of a culture
that is gradually, if not rapidly, disappearing in a changing Europe.
The opening song, which reflects the prevailing mood prior to the departure,
is translated for the audience as:
'I would go to America, yes I would,
Just for a year or two
But not forever'
However, here it is sung on the emigrant's return. His early aspirations
to emigrate in order to come back better off financially have been fulfilled,
but the price he has to pay for the journey to an alien land is just
about to be paid. The wife is desired by another, the daughter is attached
to the man who desires them both. In this emotionally charged landmine
turf he desperately tries to regain his wife's intimate love and his
daughter's natural affection. Even with the hard-earned American dollars
he could not regain what he left behind.
The gypsy's caravan which may embody the sense of homelessness or may
be of being uprooted is resourcefully utilised.
Viliam Docolomansky, a very talented young director, together with
a cast of superb actors will leave you with a memorable theatrical and
emotional experience.
You will have an opportunity to see this play at Riverside Studios,
London, on 29th November - 2nd December 2006. Don't miss it!
Rivka Jacobson
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