EIF 2024 Songs of the Bulbul Lyceum Theatre 10th August Review
“Songs of the Bulbul” at The Lyceum Theatre (9-11 August) is the world premiere of this new work from two of the most outstanding Sufi Kathak performance artists in the world today. This new dance work by Aakash Odedra with choreography by Rani Khanam is many things. It is, as we are told in the programme sheet “a sensitive dialogue between the Indian classical dance Sufi Kathak and Islamic poetry”, but it is also simply a work of beauty where movement, music, light and shadows combine into one unique experience.
Bulbuls are songbirds, common throughout Africa and Asia, but this work takes for its inspiration the Sufi myth of a bulbul captured and held in captivity. The bird cannot stand this captivity and much as it tries to continue to sing its beautiful song, the despair of captivity eventually overwhelms it. This is of course a story that has many levels, many layers to it, and the wonderfully expressive dance movements of Aakash Odedra offer so many different possibilities to this story as it unfolds in a world of light and shadow.
The physical dance of this work is obviously the main focus of “Songs of the Bulbul” and the ability of Aakash Odedra to maintain both the emotional and physical requirements to perform this work for an hour is outstanding. The set itself though is something very special too. Every movement of the wind, every spot of light, every shadow, is carefully crafted and timed here to be as much an integral part of this performance as the dance and the music (pre-recorded) on-stage.
My only problem with this work is that I know that I was missing so much of the story by not understanding the words of the music. The simple addition of English translations by surtitle would have added that extra layer of understanding to this very special work for me. I can also though see why these were not added as they would have been a possible distraction to the physical story unfolding onstage through Aakash Odedra’s dance.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Bulbuls are songbirds, common throughout Africa and Asia, but this work takes for its inspiration the Sufi myth of a bulbul captured and held in captivity. The bird cannot stand this captivity and much as it tries to continue to sing its beautiful song, the despair of captivity eventually overwhelms it. This is of course a story that has many levels, many layers to it, and the wonderfully expressive dance movements of Aakash Odedra offer so many different possibilities to this story as it unfolds in a world of light and shadow.
The physical dance of this work is obviously the main focus of “Songs of the Bulbul” and the ability of Aakash Odedra to maintain both the emotional and physical requirements to perform this work for an hour is outstanding. The set itself though is something very special too. Every movement of the wind, every spot of light, every shadow, is carefully crafted and timed here to be as much an integral part of this performance as the dance and the music (pre-recorded) on-stage.
My only problem with this work is that I know that I was missing so much of the story by not understanding the words of the music. The simple addition of English translations by surtitle would have added that extra layer of understanding to this very special work for me. I can also though see why these were not added as they would have been a possible distraction to the physical story unfolding onstage through Aakash Odedra’s dance.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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