#576 - Get lost for words at the International Mime Festival

Timeout says:
Mimefest was founded 30 years ago and is now one of the world's most important visual theatre festivals. The event incorporates shows for children and adults, wit performances by rising stars as well as a multitude of established names in the fields of circus acts, puppetry, physical theatre and live art.

Dave did:
Searching up on the shows on offer this year, I was at a loss as to which one to choose as they all looked extremely fascinating...one was based solely around the use of big bubbles and imagery!

I eventually decided upon the 'Sadari Movement Laboratory's' interpretation of Woyzeck - A German stage play written by Georg Büchner in the early 1800's.

Of course I say I decided, the fact that it was the last show to have any tickets left DID influence that decision slightly!

Anyway, the play is based on a true story of a poor german soldier driven by inhuman military discipline to madness and the murder of his mistress. It remains "one of the most enigmatic, shocking and influential works of modern theatre" (Southbank Centre).

This interpretation was a stripped-down version from Korea using only 10 wooden chairs, 10 bodies, movement, space and light to create a dynamic physical and visual language, revealing the charaters' emotional states.

The mime company itself - Sadari - was founded in 1999 and is one of Korea's best known young theatre companies which won a Herald Angel and Total Theatre Award during the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

So....in case you haven't already guess all that colourful blurb was just copied out of my programme guide!

I have to say I entered the theatre slightly apprehensive as I wasn't sure what to expect, the seats were uncomfortable and all I saw in the centre of the stage was a solitary chair:



However, over the course of the next 80 minutes I was mesmorised by how 10 people dressed in black, armed with one plain wooden chair each and some clever lighting, could create completely different scenes and make you really feel what was going on in the main characters minds.

Mime is usually associated with silent street actors dressed in black and white striped shirts. But in this case there was no silence, as the entire show was given an almost celtic backing track (Piazolla's tango music apparently) and the actors spoke constantly in korean with a few english phrases thrown in for good measure. It was also partly like a silent movie with two sentances being projected on the back wall between each scene describing what was going on.

As I already mentioned, the use of the chairs was particularly interesting and the choreography was very intricate. Over 12 scenes the Sadari group created a cemetary, a military parade, a fairground, a circus, a surgery, a mirror room, a nightmare (with lots of talking heads), a pub, a church, and a forest!

The love scene should also be noted...when I first read there was going to be some sex involved I have to admit an eyebrow was raised (well both really as I cant really do one effectively without concentrating really hard!). You may have heard of having sex on a chair....but how about two wooden chairs....back to back? It was incredibly inventive and I must say very moving (oh god, terrible, terrible use of words there!), the female was also making the most of her ability to do the splits too!!

At the end the team were even able to create their own credits, whereby they re-presented key scenes from the show within the space of 2 minutes...and these were drastic changes in scenes both for character changes and settings with the chairs.


All in all (summating here as I am rambling on a bit!) a terrific show, and just the right length in time to make for a pleasant school night past-time!



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