Idle Motion is a young, Oxford based theatre company, many of whom are in their last year of full-time education. In their uniquely designed flyer, which deserves 5 stars in itself, they describe themselves as ‘a small company with big ideas'. No one could argue with that.
Borges and I is, in their words ‘a simple love story which is tested by the same debilitating eye condition as Borges experienced,' but simple is a deceptive description of what they perform.
Written in the labyrinthine style of Borges himself, the play cleverly weaves the story of a librarian's efforts at getting a coveted job in the prestigious Bodleian Library with the dynamics of her book group where love develops between two of the members, along with a narration of the life of Borges himself.
Borges wrote fictions about real people and this ambitious company has written about the blindness of the character Sophie, giving her the same condition as Borges. He ended up seeing ‘nobody in the looking glass' and spoke of the ‘irony of God allowing [him] 800,000 books in total darkness,' while Sophie's vulnerability is shown with her falling behind at the book group, movingly at her hospital eye test and seeking the touch of a familiar childhood book.
In the background of tango moves from Borges' native Argentina, and filmic physical scenes by this 6 strong cast, is the reading of Borges' wonderful poem, You Learn, with the Voltairian sentiment, ‘So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul, Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.'
The influence of books in the play, as well of course in the life of Borges, who was also a librarian, is enormous. Books are not just props, but are used with fantastic imagination to have their pages become a doll that is Borges as a boy, a plane, skyscrapers, eye tests and dominoes.
Idle Motion show immense promise and deserve 5 stars for their imagination and creativity. Their dance moves and some of their timing have still to be honed and in future a bigger venue may accommodate their big ideas even better.
Times: 7-28 August (not 17 or 24 August), 5.30pm