Extra!_Extra!_B_Grantham_Theatre_Review_The_Beekeeper_and_Black_Dog_Pleaseance_Theatre

Theatre Review

A double bill presented by Flamingo Feather, Physical Theatre Company

THE BEEKEEPER and BLACK DOG

The Beekeeper
Conceived & Performed by Simon Rice
Directed by Ilana Gorban
Lighting Designer: Jason Kirk
Animation: Victor Craven

Black Dog

Conceived & Performed by Ilana Gorban
Directed by Simon Rice
Lighting Designer: Jason Kirk
Animation and Art Work Sara Müller and Tony Johnson

Pleasance Theatre

14 – 19 July 2009

Ibs

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A review by Barry Grantham for EXTRA! EXTRA!

I reviewed The Beekeeper when it was presented by the company at The Space in April, (look under The Space in the 09 archive pages) and I will therefore concentrate largely on Black Dog which is new to me. I can say that both pieces are well presented, meticulously rehearsed, and entirely professional. The Beekeeper has undergone some minor changes, which may have been the reason I was able to follow the narrative more closely. I enjoyed it immensely, as before.

Black Dog is also a multimedia piece, using projected images, sound and music bites and props; which include a camcorder, a mobile phone, some miniature speakers, a remote control and a bunch of carrots. It will be seen that these are very much things of our present world, and throughout there is no echo of the near or distant past. All is of the now – (on the other hand Simon Rice’s The Beekeeper is full of reverberations of time past. Hardly surprising when it is the story of a beekeeping priest) and it is very refreshing and still, a telling piece of theatre. Yes, it is theatre of course, but a shortened version could be installed at Tate Modern and might gain greater fame and acclaim there than here at the Pleasance. The projections (the creations of the woman’s mind?) are moving artwork interspersed with short videos (well acted by Dannie Carr, Adilson Nascimento and Ilana Gorban.)

There is an air of menace in many of the sequences. Such as the friendly black dog becoming threatening as he is fragmented on the screen till little more than a baleful eye remains, and when the solo performer (Ilana Gorban) meets the barrier of a vast breezeblock wall. There is a tall man; we feel that he might be an ally but our protagonist can’t reach him. Then we see a young woman sitting by a tree, who seems to represent an unreachable peacefulness and repose.

But for all the skill of the filming, the sound effects, the multimedia element the piece stands or falls by the acceptability of the one live performer. By ‘acceptability’ I mean that rather intangible quality that makes someone ‘acceptable’ to the audience, independent of anything he or she does, independent of looks or size or age, and Ilana Gorban is eminently acceptable; she is easy on the eye. Her dancing which owes little to any academic tradition is fluid and has moments of real and rare beauty. Sometimes there is an oddness of a pose that is both beautiful and startling; at one point she removes a shoe in a a peculiar faunlike position, and another when her skirt becomes swaddling clothes her own leg as the baby in her arms.

With their high production standards and two performers of skill, Flamingo Feather are worth watching.

Venue: Pleasance Theatre, Carpenter Mews, North Rd. London, N7 9EF
(5 min walk from Caledonian Rd Tube Station)

Box Office: 020 7609 1800

www.pleasance.co.uk

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