KVT at the Circus

Mon Village at the Opera house on Tuesday night was poetry on a golden canvas.

I am continually amazed at the standard of a lot of the cultural stuff we get handed up on such inexpensive platters. Mon Village at the Opera house on Tuesday night was poetry on a golden canvas. Circus  became contemporary dance and bamboo was rightfully honoured.

Take away the audience’s intermittent clapping and you have a beautiful piece of theatre. It’s a delightful celebration of bamboo and traditional village life. It manages to divorce itself from triteness and tweedom but in the wrong hands could be a clumsy parody. The mise en scene fragments and tableaux behind the bamboo blinds were artistically effective and should have been seen by all directors of local theatre, opera and ballet (except for the National Ballet’s Firebird which is very simpatico). The human body poetry in fluid movement on stage was superbly choreographed and at no stage did a performer become anything but part of a cohesive ensemble. The music played on traditional instruments was totally tops and the way the musicians became integral members of the cast was seamless.

If it’s on again, rush for a seat. Bribe someone to get you a good one. Get there very early so that you don’t miss the night animal sounds that echo through the theatre because the overture they make and the way the audience entering in dribs and drabs gradually overwhelms them is poignant…especially the volatile mix of Gallic exhuberance and Vietnamese anticipation that was predominant on Tuesday. It’s a bit like the encroachment of globalization on an innocent life style.

The opening with its aerial figure swooping through bamboo forests is outstanding and the soft and gentle, almost bucolic ending is superb. All in all an unmissable treat and the kids were as riveted as their parents.

It’s a L’Espace produced jewel set in gold and should become part of the Vietnamese cultural repertoire…. a five star piece that should go far.