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London Mime Festival 2023
London Mime Festival 2023 Still Life are a rare Belgian theatre firm, bringing Flesh to London for the primary time as a part of the London Mime Festival. Clearly, there’s a hole in understanding between the largely English-speaking viewers and the French-speaking creators. So the query naturally arises of talk, to inform a narrative, once we don’t share frequent phrases. Flesh skilfully and inventively demonstrates a mess of ways in which this will occur. The present’s title suggests the way it seems to be beneath the pores and skin of being human, analyzing it from totally different views. It contains 4 exquisitely noticed vignettes…
Rating
Excellent
Cleverly charming and refreshingly humorous, this manufacturing makes the ordinariness of being human chic, speaking its tales utilizing solely our bodies and completely with out phrases.
Still Life are a rare Belgian theatre firm, bringing Flesh to London for the primary time as a part of the London Mime Festival. Clearly, there’s a hole in understanding between the largely English-speaking viewers and the French-speaking creators. So the query naturally arises of talk, to inform a narrative, once we don’t share frequent phrases. Flesh skilfully and inventively demonstrates a mess of ways in which this will occur.
The present’s title suggests the way it seems to be beneath the pores and skin of being human, analyzing it from totally different views. It contains 4 exquisitely noticed vignettes that seize very totally different tales, telling them with scrumptious richness and with out the necessity for any spoken language.
As the present begins, digital music fills the air, resonating all through the theatre and our our bodies: already the viewers perceive corporeally that one thing is going on. The huge Barbican stage is completely black, with a central dice of curtains. This fabulously epic house then frames and offers spectacular consequence to the extraordinary, recognisable tales depicted, which could in any other case be mundane or neglected. The units are sharp, simple, and alter quickly to maneuver us between snapshots
In the primary scene a person visits his dying father in hospital. Heavy breaths and the beep of the monitor signify life, though the physique we see is dormant, and is in fact a puppet: not flesh in any respect. Nothing concerning the actors’ performances is exaggerated or outsized but the narrative is impressively delivered with huge energy. Instructions are supplied, and a mess of feelings corresponding to confusion, embarrassment and deep grief are silently signalled. Laughter ensues instantly, as we recognise the acquainted, repeated ritual of hand sanitising, donning PPE, and bagging of property to make sure human security. Ultimately these behaviours are seen to be meaningless, the daddy’s physique a limp, empty object as our laughter turns to deep, transferring sorrow.
Next, a silent comedian horror story considers the implications of cosmetic surgery and divulges the fragility of human vainness. Sophie Linsmaux and Aurelio Mergola are excellent because the tacky lovers whose physique language speaks of romance and vainness till Mergola’s synthetic face melts and morphs into disgusting shapelessness. Normality, depicted within the on a regular basis front room, underscores the whole absurdity. Again, it’s superbly carried out with excellent comedian timing, making a vividly ominous sense of the unnatural and cleverly questioning illusory ideas of the attractive physique. Â
Muriel Legrand’s massively entertaining show of carnal enjoyment, as she immerses herself completely in a VR sport of the movie Titanic is a tour de pressure efficiency. The viewers sees nothing of what she views, however understands it precisely via her passionate, meticulous motion. Legrand’s bodily animation is delightfully counterpoised by the geeky store attendant (Jonas Wertz) who sits flatly by, unmoved, as she plunges in to her new actuality, relishing it totally, earlier than crashing again to actual life in tragic disappointment as the sport ends.
Finally, at an ungainly funeral, 4 siblings meet to recollect their deceased mom and share her ashes, with devastatingly humorous outcomes. The element of this unstated efficiency is magnificently noticed: a lot is alleged about respect, energy, standing and ritual and not using a phrase used. A half kiss, smoke within the face, inappropriate greed and selfishness all feed in to a fancy story of household feuding. And but regardless of its unfavorable potentialities, human life is seen to endure in a spectacular ending with a tremendous particular impact.
Flesh is a captivating and splendidly entertaining work, each superbly understated but epically spectacular, and crafted with meticulous precision. This manufacturing makes the ordinariness of being human each chic and fascinating and it’ll actually have you ever laughing your socks off!
Conception and Direction: Sophie Linsmaux and Aurelio Mergola
Scenario: Sophie Linsmaux, Aurelio Mergola & Thomas van Zuylen
Spatial Installation: Sophie Leso
Set Design: Aurélie Deloche assisted by Rudi Bovy & Sophie Hazebrouck
Flesh performs as a part of London Mime Festival 2023 till 28 January. Further info and bookings might be discovered right here.
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