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REVIEWS Flamenco Flamen'ka by Jorge Luis Borges and Craig Revel Horwood Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue, London Now how many times before have you heard the names of the father of magic realism and the Mr Nasty of BBC TV's 'Strictly Come Dancing' mentioned in the same breath? Never, I hear you say. The man the Strictly fans love to hate has just directed and staged a new show combining Flamenco, Tango, Salsa and whatever you're havin' yourself, for the West End stage. The show, which is based on "The Interloper" and three other short stories of Borges is billed as "a passionate fusion of the traditional and the cutting edge", which is one way of putting it. Originally devised by the Paris based Karen Ruimy, Revel Horwood discovered the show there and re–imagined it for the West End, working with three choreographers, each a specialist in respectively flamenco, tango and a contermporary dance. Ms Ruimy who brought over most of the Parisien cast with her also narrates the show and her Gallic tones add to the general confusion. She is variously the bordello madam, the narrator, the lead singer and now and again wanders on repeating the mantra "All it takes to die is to be alive". This reminded me of the Flann O'Brien quip "Life, shure it'll be the death of us in the end". The narrative relates the story of Juliana and her doomed menage a trois with two brothers, Cristian and Eduardo, who rescue her from the bordello, share her for a bit, get bored and then do her in. In terms of musical style the show covers the gamut with samples of every bit traditonal flamenco and tango music you've ever heard. Bizzarely, when they run out of musical cliches they throw in a limp rendition of "Besame Mucho" (a Mexican bolero) and samples of "The Boy from Ipanema" (Brazilian bossa nova), Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (now forever linked to Doris Day) and even the old warhorse of Ravel's "Bolero", on which there should now be a moratorium in terms of choreography. As the latin tunes were being crossed off the list I shuddered to think what might be coming next, "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" perhaps? Theatregoers in London are blessed each year by visits from the great Tango companies such as "Tango Por Dos" and "Tango Argentino". Sadlers Wells' annual Flamenco Festival in February also features all the greats of that art form. They play to packed houses of both anglos and latinos and if you've ever been, you will see that they do not seem to be that inaccessible to the masses. Why then are we presented with this end of the pier show in the West End? The dance afficionados will surely recoil at the really poor quality of the dancing here and the mainstream theatregoer, who they probably think needs a strong narrative line to cope, will surely struggle to find one in this overcooked paella. One presumes the reason for this fusion was to make it more accessible to a general audience, as if good dance needs explaining to anyone. At the end when Juliana meets her maker and the boys re–affirm their brotherly love I asked myself "Why?", and for once, I wasn't being metaphysical. Until November 15 Box office: 0844 412 4661 www.flamencoflamenka.com/ |
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