“From moment to moment, 999 is funny, haunting, and just plain mystifying
The Voila! Europe Festival is currently running at the Cockpit Theatre, which means it’s an opportunity to see some of Europe’s most intriguing emerging companies and their latest work. Chance of the Hunter is a young Hungarian company who have come to the festival with their bleakly humorous, post-apocalyptic show 999. 999 is a multimedia show using live performers, handheld cameras, and a large screen for projecting both images and subtitles. The show is mostly in Hungarian, but every so often the company breaks out their English, and it’s impressive, despite their concerns about being understood.
It turns out that understanding is the key to this ominous vision of a world cooking in climate change. From moment to moment, 999 is funny, haunting, and just plain mystifying. It’s a non linear narrative about a maker of animal documentaries named Donald Tenborogh who abandons his work in despair. At various points in the show, Donald lists all the species which are disappearing as a result of climate change. He becomes obsessed with termites, probably because they are the one species that might even thrive as temperatures increase on our planet. Humans will not be so fortunate. Donald’s thoughts—or dreams—it’s never made clear, are presented to us in a series of short scenes, in which we encounter everything from rich people arguing about who gets to use the jacuzzi in their survival bunkers, to game shows that aim to find the ultimate “survivor.” In 999 survival means finding ways to live in a world subject to random and terrifying weather events, scorching heat, gas masks to help with unbreathable air, and fascistic governments that force a mother to give up a child to be raised by the state. That’s a lot of significant subject matter to put in a seventy five minute show. To their credit, the Chance of the Hunter Company introduce these themes with wry humor, as well as commitment. The performers give us an all too real insight into what it might feel like, living in a rapidly heating world.
Director and performer Gábor Viktor Kozma and the company use the most minimal of set design and costumes, both designed by Zsuzsi Szöke, to make the point. Performers Gedeon András, Boróka Kovács, Kozma, Emese Nagyabonyi, Blanka Szekeres and Fanni Zádor use their bodies to tell the story, helped by video cameras that show their performances from different angles, often in close up. 999 is a harsh world, and harsh camera angles bring added emphasis. Add in gas masks, a polar bear head, and oddly beautiful floating plastic capes that drift in the wake of the wearers, and 999 begins to seem like one of those dreams you’ll remember vividly when you wake up. Unfortunately, like dreams, much may seem incomprehensible when you reassess your memories. This is largely due, at least for English speakers, to the fact that the English subtitles on the screen are often obscured by the video projections. It’s like flying blind, even if it’s beautiful up there, listening to Hungarian, with striking images on screen and on stage, and atmospheric music composed by Márk Pásztor.
It’s always good to get a front row seat to watch what our Europeans friends and neighbours are working on, so check out the Voila! Europe website at the Cockpit Theatre, if the work of Chance of the Hunter, and other, equally experimental companies, appeals to you. The Cockpit Theatre is a welcoming space, and chances are good that you’ll find company members at the bar before or after the show, happy to tell you more about their work.
“Creaky plot apart, Peter Pan’s Labyrinth is loaded with sparkling gifts for the audience.”
If The Sleeping Trees are back in town, it must be panto time. Well, sort of. For one thing, we’ve only just climbed out of our Halloween costumes. How lucky for us that The Sleeping Trees’ by now familiar formula of mashing together well loved folk tales, allows us to enjoy November and the holiday season in a whole new way. Putting together Peter Pan with Labyrinth is certainly an eye opening take on two classic favourites. If you are curious to see what happens when Peter Pan actually does grow up, and how he manages to end up trapped in The Goblin King’s Labyrinth, hurry along to the Vaults near Waterloo Station. But don’t take the kids with you this time. Because Peter Pan’s Labyrinth is an adult panto. Besides, who wants to spend time explaining the jokes to the kids when you could be singing and dancing along with Ziggy Stardust instead?
Peter Pan’s Labyrinth is the same kind of unlikely mash up as the Sleeping Trees’ 2020 Moby Dick Whittington. Sadly, the 2022 combo isn’t quite as successful as the earlier production, even though it’s fantastic to see the Trees back on stage instead of in front of the camera. The inventive energy of the performances, the set and costume design (Maeve Black), and effortless rapport with the audience is still there. Sound design (Ben Hales) and Lighting Design (Clancy Flynn) are strong in The Vaults’ rather gloomy setting. Perhaps the plot problem is that Peter Pan’s Labyrinth really is about Peter Pan, and the Labyrinth part of the story mostly functions as a way of bringing on David Bowie in his fabulous wig and costumes. At any rate, Peter seems to spend a long time finding his way out of the Labyrinth, even if it is explained by the fact that he is now middle aged and unable to fly. Not even Kermit the Frog, and random appearances of characters from Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth are of much help to a man who has lost his job, his flat, and the fairy who used to be his best friend. It is left to the Goblin King to take pity on Peter and get him to Neverland in time to stop an unfortunate wedding. You’ve probably guessed by now who gets to be the baby that the King takes as his reward.
Creaky plot apart, Peter Pan’s Labyrinth is loaded with sparkling gifts for the audience. The biggest gift is Dan Wye as Bowie, aka the Goblin King, himself. Wye almost steals the entire show. He’s too smart to play the role as pure drag, however. What we get instead is a very elegant, ironic performance all dressed up as an entertainer who can sing beautifully. It does honour to King Goblin, and it’s just Bowie-like enough to make us remember Ziggy and hope he’s somewhere cool, enjoying Wye’s performance. Wye has some serious competition in the trio of the Sleeping Trees, naturally. James Dunnell-Smith, John Woodburn and Joshua George Smith take on the roles of Wendy, Captain Hook, and Peter — and a whole host of unexpected cameos as well. The usual comedy mayhem ensues, and the audience is invited to join in often.
Peter Pan’s Labyrinth is a fun night out—not for the family perhaps, but the Sleeping Trees also have a family friendly show, Little Red Robin Hood, coming to the Battersea Arts Centre later on in the holiday season. In the meantime, you and your friends will get lots of pleasure from singing along with The Goblin King, and enjoying some fabulously punny cocktails at the bar.
