It is hard to believe that this was a train depot in the past as the performance space was completely transformed for tonight's epic story and visually ambitious play.
Manchester International Festival commissioned this world premiere of 'Invisible Cities', somewhat based on the well-known 1972 novel by Italo Calvino. Presented by 59 Productions and Rambert.
The story's focal point was on the unique relationship between Kublai Khan (Danny Sapani) and Marco Polo (Matthew Leonhart). Khan ruled a magnificent and titanic empire, married seven times but his favourite wife was Chabi and she had died. He mourned her terribly. Polo, a dedicated traveler, accompanied his father and uncle on the Silk Road after being alone in Venice for the first fifteen years of his life. The premise of tonight's play: Khan was grieving for his late Empress and doubting his entire legacy. Meanwhile, Polo needed to obtain permission from the Emperor for his father, uncle, and himself to leave and return home to the safety of Venice. Inspired by the Prospero and Ariel character relationship in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Khan mentally travelled to cities around the world as Polo's stories of adventure and wonder gripped his attention. Khan longed for rekindled joy and excitement, he once felt. The explored cities seemed utopian on the surface, but digging deeper things quickly turned into a dystopian nightmare.
Playfully using the former train depot, acting, 'in-the-round' staging, music, choreography, architectural design, and projection, to put it simply... we were no longer in Manchester. The audience were transported from city to city; country to country. You could not deny that it was visually magical. Real and technology-aided visuals aesthetically married together. What wasn't clear was whether or not this was a Site Specific piece. I'm thinking it wasn't Site Specific because it didn't take into account the building's past, nevertheless the play utilised the physical space very well.
Video Designer, Nicol Scott had come up with jaw dropping projections. So life-like that you ended up involuntarily reacting to the displayed environment as though you were there. Combine this with Dustin O'Halloran and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie's hypnotic and dramatic music and you willingly suspended your disbelief in no time at all. Projected videos and scene titles were employed in scene changeovers, but this went on too long sometimes. Gareth Fry, the Sound Designer, balanced atmospheric live and recorded sound effectively, you couldn't tell which was which occasionally. While the disorientating echoes worked well artistically, practically it didn't work for one audience member who told me he was hard of hearing.
Sapani's authoritarian and colourful speaking voice was ideal for the role of Emperor Khan. While, Leonhart's enthusiastic and engaging storytelling, as Polo, worked on the whole but now and then felt overdone. The ensemble of dancers were mesmerising. Bodies intertwined with one another. Their attack, drive, and precision was not only commendable, but commanded your attention. Choreographed dance motifs and routines appeared to be an amplification of the narrative - zooming in on the elements: air, earth, fire, and water too.
Travelling through this mythical and mysterious journey across cities and time, the life lessons, metaphors, similies, proverbs, affirmations, and reflections were the most engaging parts to the writing. The switch to our disturbing future, towards the end, was brilliantly sudden and unexpected. Basically saying, you either accept the world as it is and become part of the problem so it becomes invisible, or you take responsibility and do something about it. On the other hand, there were points in time where I felt the visual elements seemed to be more important than the story.
Verdict: Jaw dropping and awe-inspiring projection, lighting, and special effects made the world of the play, story, and characters absorbing. Even if there were some aspects that could have been better.
on - 5/7/19
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