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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Falesa
Verdict: Lost in translation
Four actors (Pierre Béziers, Anne Decis, Pit Goedert, Florence Hautier) tell the story of The Beach of Falesa – a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. They play all the parts, narrate and translate.
A Scots trader meets the girl of his dreams on a small South-Sea island in the 1890s. He 'marries' her for a single night – a common custom among Europeans – but then decides to marry her permanently. This breaks both the taboos of the native people and the social mores of his own community. The other traders and the islanders set out to disrupt his life.
Performed in English, French and Pidgin French, with lots of simultaneous translation, the production is about a third too long. Plot development moves slowly – sacrificed to authenticity of language.
Falesa is too fussy in its staging. With front- and back-projection and shadow puppets, the style of acting varies from naturalistic to cartoon-like. All of this is good - but there is just too much going on.
There is great comic use of shadows. Three musicians (Martin Beziers - piano; Nicolas Delorme - saxophone; Cédric Beck - drums) exactly compliment the story's twists. There's clever projection of a painting of the brides's skin – the exact shade of brown - via an overhead-projection slide.
It's sometimes difficult to follow exactly what is going on - with the mixture of languages. Translations are sometimes unintentionally funny, eg after a jungle idol has been blown-up: 'a piece of the blessed bogey almost fell on me'.
Falesa has a lot of plusses, but works too hard to tell a fairly simple story. It conveys well a fragment of time in a strange place, but its use of three languages gets in the way.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Pierre Béziers. Anne Decis. Pit Goedert. Florence Hautier.
Company Credits: Writer (original story 1893) - Robert Louis Stevenson. Adapter / Director – Pierre Béziers. Original Music - Martin Beziers. Stage Manager – Stéphane Rogemond. Set Designer – Michel Vautier. Costume Designer – Christian Burle. Musicians: Martin Beziers - Piano. Nicolas Delorme - Saxophone. Cédric Beck - Drums. Company - Théâtre du Maquis (France)
END
(c) Peter Andrews 2004
reviewed Monday 16 August 04 / Aurora Nova @ St Stephen's
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
