MAGIC IN THE MUNDANE

The title and the set were simply “A Chair and a Table”, but the triple helping of “object theatre” by Jerusalem-based players offered much more. Kudos to the Israel Embassy and Chulalongkorn University for presenting the show at the school’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts last Tuesday and the previous weekend at the Vic Hua Hin.

It’s often been observed that the smaller the show in scale, the more the audience pays attention, and often the impact is correspondingly bigger as well. In this case, using nothing but a few household objects, the skilled performers took viewers on a wondrous visual and emotional journey.

“The Blue Table” by Ari Teperberg and Inbal Yomtovian – who form the Golden Delicious Ensemble – depicted with playfulness and remarkable creativity the life stories of several animals, ranging from lowly backyard creatures to elegant birds. 

Without a drop of water, the table and the space around it were transformed into the deep sea. Silver teaspoons turned into herring, a shower cap became a jellyfish, and a see-through bag of plastic tubes was a giant squid in its cave. 

The duo both animated their objects and performed along with them. Yomtovian, for example, folded a bag into a swan while her legs did dainty ballet steps beneath the table to the strains of “The Dying Swan”. 

Yael Rasooly’s “How Lovely” wasn’t so much a solo show as a duet with the carrying case for a double bass. What seemed to be the tale of a sunny family grew dark when it became clear the doll-like daughter was only pretending to leave home to attend music lessons.

Instead she was learning “something else” from a family friend. Her parents, once they discovered the dirty secret, seemed more concerned about being humiliated and tried to shut down their daughter’s senses rather than help her.

“Jonathan”, a story of love, lust and revenge ended the evening. Here, the Golden Delicious Ensemble used apples, a set of knives and a chopping board to tell the tale of young green Jonathan born amid suspicion to red parents.

We saw a series of “juicy” scenes – literally and figuratively – of affairs and deceits that resulted in a brutal yet comical patricide by a brainwashed child, peeling and slicing his green Daddy Smith with a machine. Only fruit could pull this off.

Amid the laughter, though, I noticed nearby me a worried expatriate couple and their bewildered children. Evidently the message hadn’t got out to everyone that this production wasn’t meant for kids.

Before the show, the Israelis conducted a workshop about object theatre that drew, among others, Ratchai “Nging” Rujiwipatna and Thongglur “Glur” Thongta, two-thirds of the pantomime trio Babymime. 

Nging said later he’d learned that the core of object theatre is “to play with anything and fully enjoy it”. 

“The show was really entertaining and simpler than we’d expected,” he added. “We thought object theatre might be cartoonish, but they proved otherwise. With drama in the story, object theatre can go much further. 

“We’re preparing for our full-length ‘Babymime Vol 5’ next month, so we’re making use of some of these techniques. If object theatre can play with anything, so can our pantomime!”

 

ACORN TIME