On Friday I had the opportunity to see the Polish Theatre troupe TR Warszawa perform a show they had devised called T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. at the Barbican (one of the big venues here in London).
There were a few things to note. I had to see it for my Cultural Theory class (not to be confused with my Theories of Culture class). It probably isn’t something I would have picked myself. However, because places in London like the Barbican are trying to bring in new audiences, especially young audiences, I was able to get free tickets. Originally our seats were decent, not the best, but good, and then, because the theatre wasn’t packed they moved us forward into the stalls, almost dead center. We had excellent seats.
My initial reaction was that the show was bizarre. It was physical theatre, very serious physical theatre. The story was that of a conservative, affluent family whose life is changed by the appearance of a stranger. This stranger comes into their lives and one by one seduces each of them (the maid, the son, the mother, the father, the daughter, in that order). Then, as suddenly as he appears he disappears, leaving the family to fall apart. His disruption made them come alive, out of their daily rut, and without him they didn’t know how to function awake.
It was beautifully done. The use of space was inspired.
I still didn’t get it.
It didn’t touch me.
There were several times where I thought, ‘this must be the last scene, this must be the end, this is a brilliant ending’. And then it kept moving, kept adding. It went some weird incongruous place at the end with multimedia and video of the Polish community. It made me not get ‘it’ more.
So much talent, so much hype… just not for me.
