EIF 2023 Dusk Lyceum Theatre 6th August Review
Dusk is at The Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh (Sat 05 – Tue 08 Aug), so if you are reading this review today, there is still time to catch up with a work of theatre that, to be honest, I am still processing (and I hope that is what was intended).
The Edinburgh International Festival has a long history of presenting works that make us question not only ourselves but events in the world around us, often in the process giving a voice to those who for many different reasons are being (or have been) silenced in so many different places and times across so many different countries.
With Dusk, Brazilian film and theatre director Christiane Jatahy brings her work to the UK for the first time with a work that was, if not inspired by, certainly influenced by Lars von Trier’s film Dogville. The original French title for this work is “Entre Chien et Loup” (between the dog and the wolf). This refers not to physical animals, but to a time of day when the light changes – as Wikipedia states “A French linguist would describe this as that time of day when the light is such that is becomes difficult to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, between friend and foe, between known and unknown.” The choice of Dusk for the UK title is an obvious one but the French title is far more specific to this work as, here, Christiane Jatahy speaks out about extreme-right demagogue Jair Bolsonaro winning the 2018 Brazilian elections and becoming President in 2019. Coming to power on a promise to banish ‘red outcasts’ through a ‘cleansing’ never before seen in Brazilian history, the country’s slide into Fascism was inevitable.
What this work really examines though is not the end result of fascism but how it creeps in under the radar so quietly and so many people quickly adopt views and actions against other people that a short time ago they would have considered an impossible stand for them to take. Here the words of the Simon & Garfunkel classic song “The Sound of Silence” and in particular that one line “Silence like a cancer grows” was often in my head as I watched this work. Perhaps though so many people are not so much changing their views as simply doing what they have to do to protect their own self and those close to them in an extreme environment over which they have now no control.
In Dusk, as with Dogvill, a newcomer to a group of people is at first welcomed, then distrust and eventual exploitation slowly set in between them. Can this group, who are running an experiment to see if they can change the original ending of this scenario, create a better one? This is the heart of this experiment.
Theatrically Dusk is a very good work of theatre that is full of little moments of life going on between different members of this group all over the stage but, for me, the choice to make live film feeds of some of the work and project it on a screen at the back of the stage is at times distracting. The problem here is that you are forced to watch on the screen what someone else has decided that you will see and that is often not the most interesting thing that is happening on stage. Where this does work though is in pre-filmed footage of events that we do not see directly happen on stage. This of course does mean that you have to ask who some of the people on film but not on stage are and what their relevance to this story is. Dusk is performed in French with English subtitles on the screen too.
For myself, I would have preferred this work to have been a straight theatrical work as the cast are excellent and the story is powerful, but I can see why, with its origins, that this work is crossing over and combining film and theatre together.
CREDITS
Based on the film Dogville by Lars von Trier
Comédie de Genève
Christiane Jatahy Staging, Direction and Adaptation
Thomas Walgrave Artistic Collaboration, Set and Lighting Designer
Paulo Camacho Director of Photography
Vitor Araújo Music
Anna Van Brée Costume Designer
Jean Keraudren Sound Designer
Julio Parente and Charlélie Chauvel Video Designers
Cast Véronique Alain, Julia Bernat, Paulo Camacho, Azelyne Cartigny, Philippe Duclos, Vincent Fontannaz, Delphine Hecquet, Viviane Pavillon, Matthieu Sampeur, Valerio Scamuffa
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The Edinburgh International Festival has a long history of presenting works that make us question not only ourselves but events in the world around us, often in the process giving a voice to those who for many different reasons are being (or have been) silenced in so many different places and times across so many different countries.
With Dusk, Brazilian film and theatre director Christiane Jatahy brings her work to the UK for the first time with a work that was, if not inspired by, certainly influenced by Lars von Trier’s film Dogville. The original French title for this work is “Entre Chien et Loup” (between the dog and the wolf). This refers not to physical animals, but to a time of day when the light changes – as Wikipedia states “A French linguist would describe this as that time of day when the light is such that is becomes difficult to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, between friend and foe, between known and unknown.” The choice of Dusk for the UK title is an obvious one but the French title is far more specific to this work as, here, Christiane Jatahy speaks out about extreme-right demagogue Jair Bolsonaro winning the 2018 Brazilian elections and becoming President in 2019. Coming to power on a promise to banish ‘red outcasts’ through a ‘cleansing’ never before seen in Brazilian history, the country’s slide into Fascism was inevitable.
What this work really examines though is not the end result of fascism but how it creeps in under the radar so quietly and so many people quickly adopt views and actions against other people that a short time ago they would have considered an impossible stand for them to take. Here the words of the Simon & Garfunkel classic song “The Sound of Silence” and in particular that one line “Silence like a cancer grows” was often in my head as I watched this work. Perhaps though so many people are not so much changing their views as simply doing what they have to do to protect their own self and those close to them in an extreme environment over which they have now no control.
In Dusk, as with Dogvill, a newcomer to a group of people is at first welcomed, then distrust and eventual exploitation slowly set in between them. Can this group, who are running an experiment to see if they can change the original ending of this scenario, create a better one? This is the heart of this experiment.
Theatrically Dusk is a very good work of theatre that is full of little moments of life going on between different members of this group all over the stage but, for me, the choice to make live film feeds of some of the work and project it on a screen at the back of the stage is at times distracting. The problem here is that you are forced to watch on the screen what someone else has decided that you will see and that is often not the most interesting thing that is happening on stage. Where this does work though is in pre-filmed footage of events that we do not see directly happen on stage. This of course does mean that you have to ask who some of the people on film but not on stage are and what their relevance to this story is. Dusk is performed in French with English subtitles on the screen too.
For myself, I would have preferred this work to have been a straight theatrical work as the cast are excellent and the story is powerful, but I can see why, with its origins, that this work is crossing over and combining film and theatre together.
CREDITS
Based on the film Dogville by Lars von Trier
Comédie de Genève
Christiane Jatahy Staging, Direction and Adaptation
Thomas Walgrave Artistic Collaboration, Set and Lighting Designer
Paulo Camacho Director of Photography
Vitor Araújo Music
Anna Van Brée Costume Designer
Jean Keraudren Sound Designer
Julio Parente and Charlélie Chauvel Video Designers
Cast Véronique Alain, Julia Bernat, Paulo Camacho, Azelyne Cartigny, Philippe Duclos, Vincent Fontannaz, Delphine Hecquet, Viviane Pavillon, Matthieu Sampeur, Valerio Scamuffa
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com