The Little Match Girl. The Lilian Baylis Studio Sadlers Wells Theatre London
Cast for the performance of 18th December were Corey Annand,The Little Matchgirl, Stefanos Dimoulas, Hanna Nusbaumer, Ashley Morgan Davies,The Donnarumma Family and also playing the other parts in the performance and finally the charismatic live musician Phil King.
Why it was still possible to obtain a few seats (albeit in the back row) for last night's performance is beyond this reviewer's comprehension. Arthur Pita, the Choreographer and Director's reinterpetation of the Hans Christian Andersen story ia a tour-de-force. It remains faithful to the heart and soul of Andersen's story, without being engulfed by the essential tragedy of the fate of the Little Matchgirl, with its indictment of a society where abject poverty went cheek by jowl with wealth and security in the case of so many Victorian cities and towns.
How is this alchemy wrought? Pita transports us to Italy, to the Nineteenth Century, to a small town. The performance begins with the Little Matchgirl herself, a joyous creation wonderfully brought to life by Corey Annand, joined quickly by friends and foes, the lampman Ashley Morgan Davies, her rival matchsellers, and the obnoxious Donnarumma Family. The overwhelming vividness of the characters, and their depiction in dance and song is a triumph of interpretation and engages the audience instantly and overwhelmingly.
This is Commedia del Arte meeting Marcel Marceau delivered at a pace, and with a delicacy and coordination of dance that is quite exquisite. The facial expressions of the characters are an endless stream of vignettes that endlessly reinforce the message of the story. There are moments of almost unbearable cruelty – when the rival matchsellers tie up the Little Matchgirl to the lamp post and steal her shoes, the mindless, thoughtless casual cruelty of the child of the Donnarumma family who strike all her matches and deprive her in one second of a living, of warmth, and ultimately of life itself. The taunting of her even with a piece of cooked meat, the slamming of the door against her, so she could only peer in at the warmth and plenty, tore at the heartstrings. Nor was the audience spared the shunning of the Little Matchgirl depicted at its most extreme when the Mother of the family, comes into physical contact with her, and almost faints. This is the point at which the audience is jolted into real discomfort. For here is an attitude which brings shame to the beholder, and yet an uncomfortable self-questioning too perhaps.
So how does Pita avoid having an audience of adults and children alike overhelmed by the tragedy of it all? Partly it is the pace of the performance. The audience is swept forward from memorable scene to memorable scene. This is a rich and colour-filled confection, that entertains at every moment, but entertains in the fullest sense of that word. The audience do not have time to freeze frame their emotions before the story moves on. Yet every one is full to the brim with significance. The graveyard scene when the Little Matchgirl dies is but one, for every scene has it. At every turn the dancing and singing never fail. The music composed by Frank Moon is eery, evocative, and powerful.
At its finale, Pita does that creative conjuring trick that marks out greatness...The Little Matchgirl is transported to The Moon, where, robed in simple yet beautiful garments, she entertains the astronauts of the 1969 Moon Landing.
The theatrical device enabling this tranportation is consummate: On earth, the Little Matchgirl gazes at The Moon. She then rotates its great disc to reveal The Earth. She reminds the audience that behind the circumstance of her poverty, she was valuable, special and unique. Leaving the theatre, this critic wondered if this might translate into audience awareness. Remembering the rain-soaked street-sleeper at the nearby Angel Underground Station I hoped so. A joyful Christmas to you all. But if you can, go and see this before it ends on 29th December.
Reviewer - Raymond Armstrong
on - 18/12/19
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