**** (4 stars)
“Extraordinary experience”
Well, that really was something unimaginably different…. I kind of wish I’d noticed the 18+ age warning before booking this show, but then I wouldn’t have had this extraordinary experience.
Giselle is one of the cornerstones of the classical ballet repertoire. Giselle, a young peasant girl, is seduced by a nobleman, rejected by him, goes mad, and dies of a broken heart. She becomes one of a group of vengeful female spirits who force her betrayer to dance himself to death – but intervenes at the last minute to save his life.
I’m not sure how I thought this typically romantic narrative was going to be re-imagined, but I wasn’t prepared for the outrageously flamboyant spectacle that unfolded before me.
A typically upbeat, Jolly Overture To A Musical segued into a wonderfully silvery and sparkling lipsynch Stormy Weather, Judy’s pain-wracked voice plucking at our heartstrings. First surprise – a slow strip, accompanied by enthusiastic cheers from the audience. Music from the original ballet score brought a veiled figure on stage, who tried to give a soul-filled rendition of Crystal Lullaby, but was continually upstaged by four superb dancers, whose versatility and enthusiastic audience engagement were outstanding throughout the show.
Our heroine [Jack Sears]’s ability to lipsynch perfectly while her face expresses wildly contrasting and opposing emotions is little short of miraculous – as is the writing in the monologues in which she expresses the trajectory of her life. At first overjoyed in the first rapture of love, in an idyllic rose-petalled and icing-sugared world, the shock of betrayal sends her into a descending spiral of self-flagellation, both mental and, in graphic detail, physical.
I can’t begin to describe what was represented on stage – completely outwith my sheltered experience! – but I am totally gobsmacked by the dancers’ ability [and enthusiasm] to go to the limits of what might reasonably be depicted in a public performance on an Edinburgh stage. Today’s four dancers realising Hannah Grennell’s wildly inventive and jaw-droppingly graphic choreography were Elle Fierce, Harri James Eiffert, Naia Bautista and Spike King whose sinuous bodies and wonderfully expressive faces have to be seen to be believed.
Degradation, humiliation, despair, rage, self-destructive behaviour of every kind, self-hatred, nihilism: a seemingly endless, hopeless downwards spiral which will end in suicide was brilliantly portrayed in words and movement to an increasingly demonic, screaming soundtrack.
But there is hope, the possibility of coming back from the edge of the pit. This show pays tribute to the chain of role models and elders in our lives, people both famous and intensely personal to us, stretching back into the past. Giving us someone to aspire to, we realise that we too are inspiration to those who follow us. There is hope, there is something to live for.
Small wonder in these dark times that this show was greeted with a loud and prolonged standing ovation.
Giselle: Remix, Fourth at Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), for more information go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/giselle-remix
ScotsGay Arts 