|
|
|
|
|
|
| Edinburgh : A&E : Festivals : 2002 : Official Festival |
|
 |
EIF Review
La Cuisine Director - Mladen Materic Writers - Mladen Materic & Peter Handke Company - Theatre Tattoo, Toulouse Venue Royal Lyceum Theatre Address Grindlay Street Reviewer Thelma Good Heart of the home, place of security and nourishment, the kitchen is where humans linger, hide and revive themselves. In Theatre Tattoo's La Cuisine this room is the setting for a mainly wordless hour and a half where the company, ranging in ages, types and sexes take us on a journey from dawn to dawn with many characters and many narrative ingredients. Some go through the whole piece - the family of a small boy, problem teenage girl and nurturing mother and father who evades all tasks but drawing the wine cork. A few of the cast are from the original company which was based in Sarajevo before it moved to Toulouse in France, nearly all the others are French; all of them give zest and piquancy balancing the mix, ensuring the whole ensemble simmers together to a multi-flavoured, satisfying feast for the audience.
Memorable for its linking of this domestic area with all of life, both affirming of our human kindness and cruelty, La Cuisine contains a distillation of images and stories. We watch the husband hurry to work, the young man try to pay off the armed man standing in his kitchen, the old woman embracing her uniformed son before he goes away, and the man bringing home literally the bacon but no one appreciating it. The text, sometimes also spoken in French, is projected in English on the walls of the set, while the decades we have moved through are suggested by the projected logo styles of AEG redesigned several times over the last century. The set changes as the action goes on so that it's clearly many kitchens rather than one kitchen that we are watching. Much is conveyed in the way the characters interact, the wife who moves in more and more ways to try and get her man to see her, the backward walking son whose father finally joins in, the dinner party where the wife retreats to drink alone and finally the wee small hours before dawn when grandmother and grandson see a vision of huge cherries. Humorous and serious by turn, Theatre Tattoo's style strongly reminds me of Pig Iron's Shut Eye from the US and directed by Joseph Chaikin, seen earlier on the Fringe at the Traverse this August. La Cuisine is so nearly an outstanding piece of visual theatre, only the mannered gesturing lacks the cohesive feel that the production otherwise contains. Peter Handke's The hour we knew nothing of one another, performed here as part of the 1994 Edinburgh International Festival directed by Luc Bondy, was also a work beguiling and powerful in its impressive visuals. La Cuisine's visual and atmospheric impact will live on in the audiences' memories as the hour and a half when we knew ourselves. © Thelma Good 29 August 2002 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Run in Edinburgh 28 - 31 August Other company credits: Actors - Damien Bernard, Paul Chiributa, Thierry Dussout, Loreen Farnier, Emmanuelle Hiron, Hugo Lehmann, Cathy Pollini, Haris Resic, Sodadeth San, Tihomir Vujicic, Josiane Wilson. Set Design - Mladen Materic Lighting Design - Bruno Goubert Sound Design - Sylvain Lafourcade Costumes- Odile Duverger Music Theme composed by Haris Resic |
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
