Walls and Handbags – A Poetics of Manhood Under the Circus Tent at Letní Letná
Among other events Letní Letná featured a nice and poetic evening with five men and one boy in the Czech tent. The production is called Walls and Handbags and tells a simple story set in an ordinary street with a high wall, which initially creates barriers, but also provides the space for several stories. Given the names of those involved in the making of this piece, quality, wit and professionalism were somehow expected. Everything starts even before the audiences are asked to refrain from taking any pictures or shooting any material. A little boy (eight year old Kryštof Unger), holding a bag with pieces of chalk in it, jumps from the wall consisting of vertically standing, solid wooden benches. At first, he is just sitting alone and staring somewhere. After a while he gets up and before all the audience is comfortably seated on benches in the sold-out tent, he manages to draw five "friends", who in a moment emerge from the wall. Children's imagination transforms into a story. The street, at first completely empty, is now full of manly figures. Everything really begins at this point. The men sneak into the space like "animals" and start to perform a fascinating acrobatics, the kind of which we can usually see performed by traceurs: running jumps and turns, bouncing off the walls, benches, floor. Handsprings one over another... up to this point it is not clear what role in this piece the eight year old Kryštof has, but somehow we suspect that he is not a mere bystander. And indeed, he is not! He gets to his acrobatic tricks soon after forcing them from his colleagues. Suddenly he flies across the space like a plane, he swings back and forth, he is being tossed like a ball and crawls over the others, as if oblivious to the distance from the floor. Everybody is involved in the game at the same time and we can see them change from selfish individuals with macho tendencies to a gang that tries to accommodate the needs of their smallest member. Perhaps they are going through their childhood memories, becoming playful little boys once again? The child's fragility is repeatedly overshadowed by manly gestures, egging on and competitivity. They climb on each other's shoulders, lay down obstacles, over which they turn somersaults, walk on their hands, climb to the heights... Performance and achievement is what matters, well, as long as little Kryštof does not engage in the game of adults and change the course of action in his favour once again, or just simply begins to play with others.
The wooden benches are being moved simultaneously with acrobatic and dance-movement actions. They serve numerous purposes. They can be used as desks, trees, as both a little and a big house, which one of the performers climbs, a slide, a chimney and a movable floor. Actually, everything that is just necessary. All the moving is part of the story and happens for a reason. Everything is at the right time in the right place and serves its purpose.
Some scenes, especially those where everybody is sitting on the vertically standing benches, resemble the production Sutra by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, which was part of the programme of Tanec Praha festival in 2011. The boy and adult men plus wooden chests that are being moved around, but which also serve as the basis for movement actions. The overall message, however, is different, only the visual aspects are strikingly similar.
The entire production is imbued with kindness and friendliness, but it is also riddled with humour and relaxation. About as much as when a grown man turns for a while into a dependent small child.
Finally, it is necessary to mention that the performers are not only great artists, but also very good dancers. This show could easily make it to the repertoire of some theatres, or at least alternative venues dedicated to movement, dance and theatre. It would be a shame not to see them perform again.
I would gladly recommend this piece both to demanding audiences of dance performances and to all others who want to enjoy a pleasant evening with an imaginative, absorbing and heart-soothing programme, the likes of which are quite scarce on Czech stages at the moment.
Walls and Handbags
Story: Marija Pavlović
Libretto, stage direction and choreography: Jana Burkiewiczová
Stage direction and dramaturgy: SKUTR
Set design: Adriana Černá
Music: Petr Kaláb
Singing: Csongor Kassai
Acrobatic modules design: Petr Horníček and Zdeněk Moravec
Assistant director and acting supervision: Željko Maksimović Translation: Tomáš Valníček
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species