CAN SILENCE BE EXCITING?
By Violetta Lapinski
The Overcoat
conceived and directed by
Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling
based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol
Now Playing at the Vancouver Playhouse
Until November 15th, 1997
Tickets: 873-3311
Can silence be exciting? Can it make you laugh?
Fittingly timed on the tailcoat of the Vancouver Film Festival, The Overcoat
carries the poignancy and power of silent film one step further. The Overcoat
is a stunning architectural pantomime presented by The Vancouver Playhouse
in collaboration with Studio 58. Written by 19th century Ukrainian author
Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat is a short story focusing on a humble serf, Akakii
Akakievich, toiling as an architect at a thankless corporation leading a
mundane existence. His perception of life turns inside out when he procures
an elegant new overcoat.
Creators/Directors Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling have eloquently woven
an enrapturing live theatre experience like no other, deftly fusing music,
mime and visual alacrity without words. Panych is a critically acclaimed
Vancouver playwright with numerous awards to his credit, including a Governor
General's Literary Award for his play The Ends of the Earth and a 1996 Jessie
for Vigil, which won fort Best New Play. Gorling has won Jessies for acting
and choreographing movment. Her experttise lies in physical theatre, mime
and mask and she continues teaching physical theatre at Studio 58, where
she has done so for 19 years. This strong team effort shines in its deliverance
of The Overcoat.
Seventees scenes, two acts, not a moment of boredom. The careful and rich
arrangement of colours, sounds, music, costume, light and machine art sets
only enhance the seemingly effortless and brilliant performances by the actors.
Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich ribbons his musical score through and
around the actors and their palette, engineering emotions and
movement.
The talented cast of 22 ebb and flow from scene to scene, stealthily swirling
between time, tempo and tangents. Lead by Peter Anderson as The Man, Attila
Clemann, Judi Closkey, Dean Paul Gibson, Peter Grier, Colin Heath, Cynci
Mason, Allan Morgan, Wendy Noel, Michael P. Northey, Kurt Max Runte, Mike
Stack and 10 Langara College Studio 58 students--Brent Cook, Jennifer Hill,
Jennie-Rebecca Hogan, Blair Keyzer, Paul Moniz de Sa, Leanna Nash, Courtenay
J. Stevens, Brahm Taylor, Craig Veroni, and Christine Wach demand attention.
Humour and sensitivity are projected through exaggerated facial expressions
and synchronized body movements.
275 props mirror scenes from The Man with a Movie Camera, a 1929 Russian
silent film shown at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival and
Madonna's rock video, Express Yourself. The forceful use of lighting, cog
machinery, wheels, circles, human labour, and the rise and fall of humanity
in a 19th century metropolis depicts similarities in today's highly technological
and industrialized cities. Lighting designer Alan Brodie effectively incorporates
a dramatic sense of style, conveying seasons, emotions, temperature, toil
and passion.
This delightful work is an artfully crafted experimental medium that will
appeal to everyone.