Mandelshtam
by Rafi Aaron
July 1-12, Anshei Minsk Synagogue, 10 St. Andrew
Street, Toronto Fringe Frestival, 2015
from
Osip Mandelshtam’s ‘The Age’
to
look you in the eye,
and
weld the vertebrae
of
century to century,
with
blood? Creating blood
pours
out of mortal things:
only
the parasitic shudder,
when
the new world sings…
And
new buds will swell, intact,
the
green shoots engage,
but
your spine is cracked
my
beautiful, pitiful, age.
And
grimacing dumbly, you writhe,
look
back, feebly, with cruel jaws,
a
creature, once supple and lithe,
at
the tracks left by your paw
production photos by Amir Gavriely
Honouring what she refers to as the “Ortho shul” tradition of orthodox synagogues, director Jennifer H. Capraru has taken a small fringe show and turned it into a complex spectacle of meta-theatrical elements that enchant the eye, warm the heart, and shed light upon the connections between Stalinist tactics and current global concerns around privacy and the rights of the artist.
Honouring what she refers to as the “Ortho shul” tradition of orthodox synagogues, director Jennifer H. Capraru has taken a small fringe show and turned it into a complex spectacle of meta-theatrical elements that enchant the eye, warm the heart, and shed light upon the connections between Stalinist tactics and current global concerns around privacy and the rights of the artist.
Nicole Wilson as Nadia Mandelshtam, & Omar Hady as Osip Mandelshtam
In Rafi Aaron’s beautifully poetic play Mandelshtam a very young woman takes centre stage and enchants the audience with her precocity through a brief introductory speech that sets the tone for an hour of delicately drawn scenes that bring the subject to light in a way that reminds spectators of the power that poetry and art in general can wield within a profoundly troubled state. The audience is immediately engaged by the introductory claim that there will be no direct physical contact between men and women during the play. Although this may initially strike some as unsettling and cumbersome, it quickly becomes, in the hands of a skilled director, a powerful aspect of a play honoring both history and human intimacy. One is reminded of Anna Deveare-Smith’s transcribed/performed testimonies from Fires In the Mirror as an example of the ways in which particular orthodox Jewish traditions can be adapted in order to make the experience even more dramatic and enlightening.
Simple puppets behind a backlit screen – touching and yet not actually touching - a fragile string of lights passed between a man and a woman, and a final circle of light on a floor inscribed with poetry along the circumference, give the overall mise en scene an almost childlike quality that allows the actors to take full power over the word - and to play with those words in brilliant and moving tableaus.
Capraru and Aaron have been blessed with a cast who grasp all of the nuances of the poetic script and the essential physicality of the director’s interpretation. Bruce Beaton, as the poet’s friend and colleague Aleksandr, exemplifies this as he skillfully interprets long poetic sentences in a sometimes clipped, sometimes drawn out rhythm that allows the words, like poetry, to wash over us without losing any of the meaning or intensity. He gives contemporary, poetically inflected dialogue a sense of naturalistically rendered Shakespearean tones that simultaneously sooth, inform and dramatize. The other performers match his skill for subtle renditions of complex, at times metaphoric turns. The entire ensemble excels as they execute dance-like gestures that move them in and out of the simple circular playing space located in the basement of Anshei Minsk Synagogue in the heart of Kensington Market.
Nicole Wilson as Nadia Mandelshtam portrays the
poet’s wife and comrade with an emotional honesty that attests to the actual
character’s drive to memorize her husband’s work in the face of destructive
politically charged censorship. Pieces of paper move about the stage in a
resonant manner as one is constantly reminded that particular waves of history
can drown the artist’s words if there are no witnesses who can take those words
and move them into future generations of spectators and practitioners. Tatjana
Corniq as fellow poet Anna Akhmatova brings further power to the overall theme
of protecting the poet’s work and life, and has an especially powerful scene as
she seamlessly self-accompanies on the accordion - circling the playing space as
she delicately recites a tribute to Mandelshtam’s work through the playwright’s
beautifully rendered narrative gaze that reveals Nadia Mandelshtam attempts to
piece together Osip’s fraught legacy.
Osip Mandelshtam, played by Omar Hady, is brought
to life with physical agility and poetic exuberance. Hady never misses a beat
in a relentless and moving tribute to the artist’s belief in how personal
politics often become integral to the poem. His physicality and his fervor are matched
by two performers who must constantly remind him of everything that is at stake,
giving the overall script a timeless quality regarding the powerful position of
women within major political struggles.
*
My seat at the corner of a circle, beside a frequently
illuminated puppet screen, gave me a very special and enlightening perspective.
I could see the stage manager manipulate the puppets while the back stage actor
sat in a chair and recited the puppet lines. Capraru added the puppets to the
show, as well as the simple inventive string of lights that added intimacy without
breaking the Ortho shul tradition. These touches gave the script added and highly
effective layers of theatricality. As a single audience member unintentionally allowed to watch
the mechanics of this approach, I felt the script come alive in complicated
ways that could be developed in a larger production. Further use of dance like movement,
evocative back lighting for the puppetry, and simple lighting gestures
throughout, coupled with elements of the exposed back stage goings on could
move this hour long show into a full length inter-disciplinary piece highlighting
many art forms as connective tissue to the primary art of the poet that
inhabits the script.
More of Mandelshtam’s actual poetry,
interspersed with work from Akhmatova,
could flesh out the poetic plot lines. And the life of the poet did seem at times
overly condensed to fit the hour long requirements of the fringe festival. And yet
sixty minutes, in the hands of a sensitive playwright attuned to the arduous
journey of his subject, mixed with the insights of a brilliant director who knows how to make
poetic dialogue come alive through physicality and direct, simple stage
business, rendered this tribute to a highly gifted and highly politicized poet
a very special moment that reveals the power of theatre and the power of words.
for more information on the life & work of Osip Mandelshtam go to: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/osip-mandelstam
for informaiton on the work of Rafi Aaron go to: http://www.rafiaaron.com/
for informaiton on the work of Rafi Aaron go to: http://www.rafiaaron.com/
