**** (4 stars)
“An honest and courageous show”
Created and performed by Ninon Noiret, The Raft of the Crab uses words, music, puppetry, contemporary dance and the Chinese pole to explore Ninon’s relationship with the cancer which might have destroyed her performing career and taken her life.
The fact that Ninon was in front of us, displaying a breathtaking ability with said pole among her many other talents, could perhaps have indicated that neither of these fates came to pass – but still the audience was gripped by her narration. From the beginning, where she sadly sings ‘happy birthday’ to herself, to the final quizzical introspection – ‘what will you do with the rest of your life?’ we are drawn into the confusion and challenge of her world, into which the dreaded crab – cancer – so rudely erupted.
She puts a brave face on it – but the fear is there too, the rage, the loneliness, the despair: the insensibility of others and the black humour with which she attempts to survive when at her lowest. The words flow out – sometimes English, sometimes French, and sometimes inaudible: the really important pieces of information and comment, however, are delivered with a microphone and a dazzling smile, even when the message is grim.
Two puppets assist her. One is life-sized – the self to whom she speaks when she is pondering how the crab first came into her body. The other is half her size, a shrunken and virtually bald image of the self she becomes through chemotherapy, constantly tugging at her inadequate hospital gown, smoothing it down, ‘making herself decent’ – heart-breaking.
There’s also a large blue crab: the cancer, with whom she has a love-hate relationship – a friend as well as an enemy, something both inside and outside her, something which takes away a part of her but is also at times her whole identity.
This is an honest and courageous show in which Ninon reveals a lot about herself and those around her. Sometimes the battle isn’t with the cancer but with the people she has to deal with – even her family, at times. She questions herself – even in this dreadful time, the artist/ performer part of her is thinking about how she can put her experiences into a show… The graphic physicality of her struggle to regain mobility, confidence, the courage to fly up the pole is striking.
So too is her final question: what will you do with the rest of your life?
It’s a question we could all ask ourselves, whether or not a crab appears to ruin our birthday celebrations.
The Raft of the Crab, Manipulate Festival, The Studio Theatre, Edinburgh, Run Ended
ScotsGay Arts 