« Women and children in the dark » touches – but are loosely jointed
« How to play theater in the dark? » It is a justified opening replica in a performance that starts a little tiring before it eventually finds its shape. 45 tonnes of sand fill the Orion Theater’s peeled stage room and create movement resistance for both actors and audiences. It is not completely extinguished either; In the corners the emergency exits glow green. But the darkness is in line with thoughts about both trivialities and life necessities.
« Women and children in the dark » are largely based on the play « Women in the Dark » by Iryna Serebriakova and Masha Denisova, two young playwrights from Kiev. It is based on posts in social media and depicts everyday war life based on the recurring power outages – on the sand scene counteracted with flashlights, candles and open fire. As well as the deafening sound of an electric generator.
It’s all about How a headlamp can create pragmatic sense of fashion awareness and the fear that the electricity will disappear before the food on the stove is cooked. And about the necessity to check the missile forecasts on the way to the playground, the risk of getting stuck in the elevator and the general uncertainty that must be overcome hour by hour in a war -affected country. The material is permeated by a black humor, sometimes with echoing laughter in the middle of the misery.
Lydia Flores Garcia, Malin From and Nina Irendotter take turns to give the women in the text voice, while the men (Martin Hasselgren, Niklas Lindgren and Richard Ahlman) either boots past as soldiers or rumble around like Lodis. The sound of wing alarms and air attacks penetrates and crawls under the skin. I wish director Lars Rudolfsson had satisfied himself there and let the audience go home with these touching attempts to make everyday life work in a dysfunctional existence.
But after the break Have you chosen to joint the substance with Barbro Lindgren’s picture book « Andrej’s longing » about two boys on the space from an orphanage in Sankt Petersburg. The association with today’s forced outdoor Ukrainian children is reasonable, but the cormorant is too loosely designed and the tone does not hit right. The playful pantomimous presentation to pre -recorded clarinet is certainly congenial with the children’s book, but stands in the way of the real matter here: Serebriakova and Denisova’s powerfully formulated war depiction.
If you want to experience « women in the dark » without childish hangings, you can at the same time go to Uppsala City Theater, where the play just had a new premiere. While Ukrainian music had difficulty hearing at the concert halls, the interest in Ukrainian contemporary drama seems more obvious in the theater scenes.
Read more Stage reviews and more texts of Johanna Paulsson.
