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<<  -- 2 --  David Wilkins    DEVASTATING POWER

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You sit for part one. You stand for part two. Life becomes increasingly uncomfortable as your engagement deepens. The instrumentalists are always visible: cornered at first, spread around the performance space after the interval. It's a great conceit and a triumph for how much these players spark each other. Finland has, for some reason, always had an enviable tango tradition. Denmark, on this evidence, now joins them and leads in spades.

Lars Brygmann as Duende with overhead projection of his opening narrative of the history of Maria de Buenos Aires. Photo © Casper Sejersen
Lars Brygmann as Duende with overhead projection of his opening narrative of the history of Maria de Buenos Aires. Photo © Casper Sejersen

Lars Brygmann is a rather different Duende (the fateful narrator) from Horacio Ferrer -- more involved and tragically overturned by his obsession from the outset. When he reaches his drunken nadir in the second part, it's a perfectly achieved accumulation of damage and defeat rather than a Hemmingway-esque scenario of machismo on the skids. He's husky of voice and gaunt of feature throughout and, unlike the sublime aloofness of the role's creator, totally undone-by rather than just complicit in the awfulness of this cycle of misery and hope.

'Hoy es Domingo'. From the closing scene of Part Two. Maria is temporarily blindfolded as time is stolen from her eyes. Guido Paevatalu, as 'A Voice on That Sunday', looks on. Photo © Casper Sejersen
'Hoy es Domingo'. From the closing scene of Part Two. Maria is temporarily blindfolded as time is stolen from her eyes. Guido Paevatalu, as 'A Voice on That Sunday', looks on. Photo © Casper Sejersen

 

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Copyright © 10 April 2005 David Wilkins, Eastbourne UK

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