“The Magic Flute” – Adapted
and directed by Mark Dornford-May. Performed by Isango Ensemble. Presented by
ArtsEmerson, Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street, Boston
through November 10.
It all begins with the marimbas, tables of long wooden bars mounted above resonators, instruments that look similar to xylophones, but the sound is so much different. It’s a joyous sound – the sound of a warm and faraway place where the atmosphere is festive. And the rhythm that throbs under the music just makes you want to dance.
“The Magic Flute” – Adapted and directed by Mark Dornford-May. Performed by Isango Ensemble. Presented by ArtsEmerson, Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street, Boston through November 10.
The 21 or so performers of Isango Ensemble, a troupe made up of black South Africans, are unassuming and relaxed as they warm up onstage before the show begins. They could be neighbors you pass on the street, or strangers you see on the T, or colleagues in your workplace until their conductor, taut and precise, steps onstage and raises his arms. Isango Ensemble are immediately transformed into performers, filling the space with energy, musicianship and joy. This transformation, not something that audience members usually get to bear witness to, lasts throughout the next two hours during this magical retelling of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. Truly an ensemble, the performers are so in tune with one another and the score that they are able to play without the benefit of sheet music. Their instruments consist of marimbas, drums, feet, hands, and in one cleverly executed instance, a trumpet.
(Roomful of Teeth performing ‘Triptych’ at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. Photo: Maria Baranova)
By Michele Markarian
‘Triptych (Eyes of One on Another)’ –
Composed by Bryce Dressner. Libretto by korde arrington tuttle. Featuring words by Essex Hemphill & Patti
Smith. Directed by Kaneza Schaal. Presented
by Arts Emerson, in association with Celebrity Series of Boston and New England
Conservatory at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street,
Boston, through November 3.
Several different factors can draw one to see this show. Perhaps you’re an admirer of Robert Mapplethorpe, the controversial artist whose photographic work began in the 70’s until his premature death, from AIDS, in 1989? Or a fan of the poets Essex Hemphill or Patti Smith, whose works make up the text of the show? My curiosity was piqued upon learning that Bryce Dessner, a guitarist with The National, composed the score. Friends I ran into after the show were pulled by Roomful of Teeth, a Grammy-winning vocal project that they’d seen many times at Mass MOCA. Whatever your reasons, your emotions will certainly be aroused by this provocative, evocative, beautiful and sometimes disturbing concert punctuated by the written word, photographs, and the lonely, disinterested yet yearning presence of the graceful dancer Martell Ruffin.
(Maude Parent and the cast of ‘Passengers’, now playing art ArtsEmerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre – Photos by Alexandre Galliez)
By Mike Hoban
Passengers – Conceived,
Directed and Choreographed by Shana Carroll. Music, Lyrics, Sound Design, and
Arrangements by Colin Gagné. Presented by ArtsEmerson and performed by The 7 Fingers
at Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, through
October 13
Montreal-based The 7 Fingers returns to the Cutler Majestic Theatre to kick off ArtsEmerson’s 10th season, and the latest offering from the circus arts troupe, Passengers, elevates the genre from mere circus performance to genuine art. While one surmises that this has long been the aim of the company, as someone who has seen most of the half-dozen 7 Fingers shows presented by ArtsEmerson in recent years, this is the one that truly fulfills that vision. And this in no way demeans previous shows. In addition to the oohs, ahhs, and nerve-wracking aerial stunts that any good circus arts show provides, 7 Fingers always reaches for something more in an artistic sense, but Passengers is in its own stratosphere.
‘Passengers’ – U.S.
Premiere presented by ArtsEmerson at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219
Tremont Street Boston. September 25 through October 13
ArtsEmerson will be bringing back Montreal’s The Seven Fingers to open their 10th season next week, with the circus arts troupe presenting the U.S. Premiere of ‘Passengers’. The piece will explore “our fascination with trains both in terms of nostalgic dreams of another era or another land, and as metaphor for the twists and turns of life among fateful encounters with strangers.” Theater Mirror had the chance to speak with a pair of the troupe’s newest performers recently, aerial silks and trapeze artist Sabine van Rensburg and tight wire artist Brin Schoellkopf – both of whom will be making their debut with the arts collective with this show.
‘See You Yesterday’ – Presented by ArtsEmerson and the Global Arts Corps, at the Emerson Paramount Center Robert J. Orchard Stage through Sunday May 19
ArtsEmerson closes out its 2018/2019 season with a 65-minute circus arts/theatrical piece that uses the horrors of the Khmer Rouge genocide as a basis for its narrative, as told by second generation survivors. And while the results are a bit uneven (this is the U.S. premiere), the young artists deliver a vibrant and sometimes chilling performance, telling their story through movement, dance and of course, circus arts. While much of the piece features the prodigious acrobatic talents of the 19-person troupe, it is the episodes from the Cambodian Killing Fields – which claimed the lives of more than a million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime (although death totals for the four-year reign of Pol Pot were double that) – that give this production its real emotional weight.
‘American Moor’ – Written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb
(with additional performance by Josh Tyson). Directed by Kim Weild. Set Designer: Wilson Chin. Lighting
Designer: Alan C. Edwards. Sound Designer: Christian Frederickson. Stage
Coordinator: Tareena D. Barbe. Presented by ArtsEmerson at the Emerson
Paramount Center through April 21st.
Who is American Moor for? For what audience is it meant? This question becomes complicated in any work directly concerned with race and racism, which always involves at least two parties: the marginalized and those who marginalize, the victims of racism and its perpetrators. The question of audience is in this case, then, political. If a production on Blackness is meant for Black viewers, then we might say it presents Black viewers with too-scarce representation, but we might also worry that it does nothing the change the hearts and minds of non-Black folks. But if that Black artwork is meant for non-Black viewers, while we may laud its potential to heal racial strife, we also may worry that Black audiences are, once again, being deprived of art for their own sake.
(Jeff Harmer, Diana Payne-Myers, Lianne Harvey, Hamish Riddle, Andrew Macklin, Christine Kavanagh and Ensemble in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley, P.W. Productions on tour 2018/19 Directed by Stephen Daldry Designed by Ian MacNeil Lighting by Rick Fisher Associate Director Julian Webber Photo by Mark Douet)
By
Mike Hoban
‘An Inspector Calls’ – Written by J.B. Priestley; Directed by Stephen Daldry; Set Design by Ian MacNeil; Lighting Design by Rick Fisher; Music Direction by Stephen Warbeck; Sound Design by Sebastian Frost. Presented by ArtsEmerson at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston through March 24
Perhaps what is most striking about An Inspector Calls, the riveting National Theatre touring production from London now being presented by ArtsEmerson, is how closely its theme and language reflect the current state of affairs between the haves and have nots – despite the fact that the play made its stage debut just after the close of World War II. An Inspector Calls is an Agatha Christie-style drawing room crime drama that – on the surface – investigates the connection between the apparent suicide of a young woman and the Birlings, a wealthy and politically connected family in the fictitious industrial town of Brumley, England, where the family patriarch owns a factory.
‘When Angels Fall’ (Photos by Sophian and Georges Ridel)
By Mike Hoban
‘When Angels Fall’ – Direction
and Choreography: Raphaëlle Boitel; Artistic Collaboration, Set Design, and
Light Design: Tristan Baudoin; Original Soundtrack and Sound Design: Arthur
Bison; Costumes: Lilou Hérin; Rigging, Machinery and Set Design: Nicolas Lourdelle;
Artistic Assistant: Clara Henry. Presented by ArtsEmerson at the Cutler
Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston through February 24
If you’re a frequent attendee of Boston theater (or
a reviewer), you’ve got to love the break from ‘traditional’ theater that
ArtsEmerson provides with their visiting programs. Whether it’s the aerial and
acrobatic artistry of Montreal’s Seven Fingers, the weird and brilliant live
cinematic shadow puppet shows of Chicago’s Manual Cinema, or the insanely
imaginative building of an entire house onstage (Geoff Sobelle’s Home), ArtsEmerson’s presentations
of contemporary world theatre gives us a much needed respite
from the steady diet of productions of Twelfth
Night and Fiddler on the Roof – even
if, like me, you’re a fan of both.
“The End of TV” by Manual Cinema. Screenplay by Kyle Vegter and Ben
Kauffman. Direction and Storyboards by
Julia Vanarsdale Miller. Presented by Arts Emerson, Emerson Paramount Center,
559 Washington Street, Boston, through January 27.
“They tiptoe into your heart until you care for them so much,” is the first line of Manual Cinema’s new work, “The End of TV”. The line is from a commercial referring to cats, but works well as a through-line for the rest of the piece, which deals with love and loss and the failed promise of the American Dream against the relentless backdrop of consumerism. A self-described performance collective, design studio and film/video production company, Manual Cinema uses shadow puppets, on-the-spot video feeds, multi-channel sound design and a live, five-piece band to create a theatrical cinematic experience.
