Week 18 - The Late Middle Classes

The last two weeks I have spent in Lithuania, my home country. Activities here included kayaking in wild nature, lots of Lithuanian beer and not so much culture. However, visiting with friends from abroad and acting as their tourguide, I managed to take in some culture.

We visited the Museum of Genocide in Vilnius, which is dedicated to the Lithuanian struggle against Soviets. It's located in the former KGB building, which, ironically, is now transformed into the courthouse. One does not hear much about Baltic states history in Western Europe, so my friends were fascinated to learn the horrors and amounts of people transported to Siberia or simply killed. After a rather well planned exposition in the museum, visitors are allowed to inspect prison cellars. That is a truly horrific experience as you walk by torture rooms and killing area.

Just before going to Lithuania, I saw The Late Middle Classes at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. Simon Gray's play tells a story of a middle class family exiled from London to the Isle of Wight in 1950s. Celia, a wife and mother, excellently performed by Helen McCrory, is bored by provincial life and longing for London. Her son Holly holds this ticket – he needs to win a scholarship for a prestigious school. To increase his chances, a piano tutor is hired and a friendship between the boy and his teacher starts. There is lots of room for suspicions and topical paedophile accusations. As Michael Billington from the Guardian notices, the tutor is presented as 'a man who seeks to harness his instincts and turn them to creative ends'. And so, it is left for a viewer to decide what is the truth. As it was my first time in this celebrated theatre, the play was a perfect christening present.

Week 17

On location

Week 16 - Nevermore; Carbon Club

Two promising theatre performances this week at my favourite venues. The Catalyst Theatre from Canada brought us Nevermore to the Barbican – a dark and grotesque story of Edgar Allen Poe. I got tickets for it as soon as the tour was announced. Poe's life was extremely tragic and full of all woes one can imagine – death, disease, betrayal, alcoholism and poverty. The Catalyst Theatre promised to tell the story through gothic effects and rhymed songs. What a big disappointment it was! It combined all things one hates – circus miming, children's theatre and West End musical. The show was the last this season in the Barbican for me and what a terrible way it was to end an otherwise exciting year in this lively and diverse arts centre.

Another performance turned out to be as exhilarating as it was promised. In summer The National expands outside to the Southbank and fences off Square 2 for outdoors theatre from around the world. Thursday night was spent with Markeline from the Basque Country and their excellent show Carbon Club. From episodes of miners life (strikes, fires underground, friendships and girlfriends) they devise a narrative of 2 characters. Jose constantly dies in various accidents and Antonio, being secretly in love with Jose, always brings him back to life with a kiss. Markeline creates a mayhem with pyrotechnics, loudspeakers and the truly unexpected. When a burning trolley rolled into the audience at the beginning, people faces were marked with fear. Oh, what a look everyone had! Later we participated in a miners strike, in a striptease dance, in a wedding and a funeral. Carbon Club is a prime example of street theatre.

Last week I mentioned Cloud Atlas in this blog, and all this week I kept spotting fellow travellers reading it on the Tube. What an influence! :) 

Week 15

After touring the UK, Brazilian dance legend Deborah Colker finally brought her cast to the Barbican in London to show the latest production Cruel.

The piece starts with eight stylish couples dancing in a romantic court to an eclectic mix of Baroque and modern music. Everything is perfect and synchronised, but like in life and love, things don't last too long and dancers fall out. We join in a journey of passion and grief, love and disappointment of 18 dancers playing various characters. Colker shows the cruelty everyone experiences at some point in the life – be it in family, relationship or friendship. This performance was rehearsed for two years, which is especially evident once a couple dances on the moving table with a set of knives. Colker requires ballet training from her dancers and her choreography has strong ties with classic tradition, which translates into the beautiful result on the stage. Her style is accessible and eye-catching, especially in the second part where four giant mirrors are wheeled in to reflect character emotions. Holes in the mirrors allow the dancers to hide and appear again, to slide in and out.

This was one of the most moving and awe inspiring performances I have seen this year.

Also this week: listened to the last LSO performance this season of Harding conducting Bruckner's 8^th Symphony, discussed Robert Harris' The Ghost in the Zone 1 Book Club, watched an excellent French thriller Tell No One and started reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.