WAR SUM UP.
Directed by Kirsten Dehlholm. Music by the
Irrepressibles and Santa Ratniece with Gilbert Nouno and with the Latvian
Radio Choir. Hotel Pro Forma. OzAsia Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. November 5-6
2018 OzAsia Bookings
ozasiafestival.com.au or BASS on 131246
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Hotel Pro Forma’s War Sum Up at this year’s OzAsia
Festival invades the mind,evokes the emotions and leaves the audience possessed
by the sheer power of the choral music and striking impact of the visuals This powerful operatic requiem on war is
adapted from three archetypal Noh
Theatre plays, The Soldier, The Warrior and The Spy. The first of these tells of a
soldier killed by a roadside bomb and
honoured with a monument. In The Warrior,
the soldier is killed in battle and returns as a ghost in his search for peace.
The female spy is captured and escapes, only to return as a superwoman of the
fantasy genre and Japanese pop culture. Imbued into this production is the
graphic ingenuity of Manga and video art combining Japanese comic book drawing
and video art.
Soprano,Ieva Ezeriete enters.
Dressed in a yellow suit, she is today’s Gamemaster, taking us through the
soldiers’ tales,her soaring song luring the audience into the mournful choral
requiem. Slowly she turns the handle of her music box and shafts of light, spear-like,
slide across the scrim. Behind, on two levels, we make out the figures of
soldiers, almost androidal in their ghostly appearance, representing the
soldiers of all time. “The battle is about to begin” appears on the surtitles.
Under the baton of conductor Sigvards Klava, the Latvian Radio Choir chants the
call of the fallen. As in a Greek tragedy, one member steps forward to lead the
chorus in their song of experience. Tenor Aigars Reinis recounts the tale of The Soldier. The resonant bass voice of
Gundars Dzilums delivers the forceful defiance of The Warrior and alto Ilze Berzina lends an elusive mystery to The Spy, the Mata Hari of war time espionage
The choral sounds of the Latvian
Radio Choir echo through the memories of war, timeless in its conflict, devastating
in its relentless destruction and scarred with the tragedy of loss. The poetry
of the Noh text, rich in imagery and laden with simile and metaphor conjures the
imagination. The choir is enveloped by the compelling visual design of the video
technique. Magna art techniques morph body parts into the fearful weaponry of
war and the symptoms of PTSD are projected onto the scrim. In The Warrior a thesaurus of “warrior”
from insurgents to terrorists reminds us of causes beyond the experience of
war.
Under the precise direction of performance
artist Kirsten Dehlholm, the choir creates a sculptural collage of tableaus,
still life, capturing images in classic frieze. Their movements along the
platforms are slow and suspenseful, reminiscent of a Noh drama, infiltrating
heart, mind and body. War Sum Up is
the ultimate visceral experience, astounding in its evocative power to challenge
perception and react to the inevitable
futility of war. The operatic magnificence of the production transforms our
appreciation of man’s inhumanity to man in Hotel Pro Forma’s unforgettable and
haunting requiem.