“
Breaking the Waves” by
Vivian Nielsen, directed by
Tom Dugdale, Hungarian Theatre of Cluj is a powerful, psychologically inserted performance about an extraordinary love and extreme religious probation. Now, watching back to the festival days I ask myself how come that in so many of the performances religious feelings and religious indoctrination in general have been questioned.
Here again, the naïve religious devotion of Bess rushes her into the abyss of guilt and self-punishment. At what point has religion creative power and when does it become destructive for one’s personality and dignity? Once more, I admire the excellent team of actors from Hungarian Theatre of Cluj. Based on the movie by Lars von Trier, this performance has independent attitude and style. The musical moments are structuring especially well the whole construction of the performance.
It’s the third performance of
Jaram Lee that I see here in Cluj and she always manages to surprise me with her rare ability to combine tradition and modernity. Her pansori shows refuse to remain a museum exhibit of the 17th century or just “an oral heritage of humanity”. Jaram Lee courageously mixes her ancient art of musical storytelling with modern themes and authors. After
Brecht, now it’s the turn of
Márquez. In “
Stranger’s Song” directed by
Ji Hye Park, (Pansori Project ZA, South Korea). We are invited to an up-to-date show with a really spontaneous mood, informal comments and delicate humor during the interacts. At some moments we have the impression that Lee is even improvising, although those are probably previously elaborated relaxing moments. The short story of Márquez “Bon Voyage, Mr. President” is transformed into a theatre piece by several amusing introductions to the Latin American geography, history and even ethnicity. Jaram Lee alternates humor with emotion, switches from farce to drama by short mimics combined with few seconds of silence or with delicate but still very expressive gestures. She tells us the story of how a strange unspoken friendship could be established between complete strangers.
Aglika Stefanova-Oltean
