Plainly, Art

“La Strada”
Prague Chamber Ballet
Vinohrady Theatre
Prague, Czech Republic
May 26, 2024

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

It was only a matter of time until Otto and Jiří Bubeníček were drawn back to their family legacy—the circus. Perhaps because they are identical twins, they both chose to tackle Federico Fellini’s film La Strada which, by the way, premiered seventy years ago. Yet, they didn’t work together. While Otto designed sets and costumes for Natália Horečná’s ballet La Strada (starring Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, and Mick Zeni) at Sadler’s Wells, Jiří choreographed La Strada for the Prague Chamber Ballet. I wasn’t able to watch Horečná’s version in London (I also missed Marco Goecke’s La Strada for Munich’s Gärtnerplatz Theatre in 2018) but had the chance to see Jiří’s work in Prague. He collaborated with, among others, his wife, Nadina Cojocaru, on the libretto and dramaturgy. Cojocaru was also in charge of set and costume design.

Like in previous pieces, Bubeníček and his team came up with out-of-the-box ideas. The action wasn’t limited to the stage but rather extended to the pit (into which the corpse of Matto, who was danced by Lukáš Faul, was disposed of) and the auditorium (through which the circus folk entered their big top on stage, doing front handsprings and offering popcorn).
Bubeníček arranged Nino Rota’s score by assembling recorded and live music, the latter played by three musicians (Marie Hasoňová on violin, Karolina Blehová on trumpet, and Martin Lesa on accordion and guitar) who mingled with the dancers.
Gelsomina (Bára Müllerová) blew the trumpet once, but the shrieking tone that she produced almost floored Matto. Clever uses of sounds defined the setting; the swooshes of the surf indicated the clothesline rope onto which Gelsomina’s mother (Mária Dorková) pinned the laundry on the beach. The clatter of a moped made clear that the red rolling cart that Zampano (Ennio Zappalà) pulled by hand symbolized the ramshackle two-wheel motorhome that he rode in the film. Spoken text was used moderately. The dancers quoted a few iconic lines from the film (for example, “Zampano arrived” and “Gelsomina, the drum!”), and equally bizarre dialogue accompanied a bizarre circus freak show.

Bubeníček eschewed technical gimmickry (e.g., no videos, no fancy backdrops) but instead exploited old-style theater techniques of which movement was the main tool of expression. It was clear from the very first moment that Gelsomina, clinging to a wooden pylon like a scared little ape, carried great melancholy inside herself. Like a naive child, she rode a red toddler’s tricycle, but her face brightened when she caught a huge squid for the hungry mouths of her two sisters (Oldřiška Neumannová and Lejla Muzajeva) and her hard-boiled mother. A down-to-earth single mom, the mother readily hawked Gelsomina to the street artist Zampano for a cheese loaf and a magnum bottle of red wine.
The pigheaded, coarse Zampano for whom brawn signified superiority gave Gelsomina a rough time. Yet the mere sight of his trumpet fascinated Gelsomina, and she took to performing alongside Zampano and, later, Matto, like a duck to water. Matto, a savvy, alert, and kind-hearted clown and high wire artist, was the opposite of Zampano. He couldn’t stop to deflate Zampano’s bloated ego until a galled Zampano ran amok. His ire was directed toward everyone, but especially Gelsomina, who he manhandled with less and less restraint. While caught in his grip, her head pulled in like a turtle, and her legs struggled in vain in the air. And knowing that Zampano had accidentally killed her friend Matto broke her soul.
The tender sign of care that finally stirred Zampano couldn’t reach her anymore. Zampano, haunted by memories of Gelsomina, hit rock bottom. His life was screwed up, and there was no chance left to right it.

Some dancers of the small company played double roles. Neumannvá also danced as the sexy lady who seduced Zampano into a one-nighter. Aleš Krátký played the circus principal and the merry priest who partied wildly at a wedding.
The wedding couple was danced by Muzajeva and František Rezek. For Dorková, who, in addition to Gelsomina’s mother, also depicted the widow hitting on Zampano, the performance was special. A former dancer of Laterna magika and Prague’s National Theater, Dorková bid farewell to the Chamber Ballet after one season. Emotions were intense during her curtain call.

Facebook

0

Twitter

Print