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| Our cast of characters |
Pinocchio by Jasmin Vardimon
It is fast and funny and with layer upon layer of visual delight. The super talented cast of performers make this a real treat of a show.
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| Lies can catch up on you |
Pinocchio’s Workshop
The set is one of the most fantastical I have seen. The marionette’s workshop has suspended furniture coming and going on wires and runners throughout the one and half hours (no interval.) Pinocchio’s whole world is manipulated by forces outside himself. He learns about the emotions that make us human before he transforms finally into a real boy.
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| Everything has strings… |
The original book actually has 36 chapters each set in a different world. This production travels through quite a few of them with incredible imagination. It is an incredible achievement to bring this ambitious project to the relatively modest dimensions of the Dance City stage in Newcastle.
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| Whip them into shape! |
Pinocchio and friends
This performance is layered with much charming detail. You can tell that this is a collaborative process with the talented dancers, and is all the richer for it.
The characters are delightful. Maria Doulgeri is super elfin and wide eyed as our central focus Pinocchio. Her early scenes where Pinocchio is learning to walk with his new legs was very authentic. I really like the emotion of the scenes where Pinocchio learns what it is to be bullied and rejected by his peers. He goes on alone and finally realises he must return home to his father Gepetto.
I love the Cat and Fox duo with their arch humour and hilarious bamboozling of poor Pinocchio. My favourite scene is the mad knees up at the Inn of the Red Lobster, where everyone is having a high old time at Pinocchio’s expense.
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| Party on down! |
Tables and drinks and customers and chefs are continually moving as the party actually really does take off into the air! A couple of guests to the bar did a small scene where their feet became two characters who sat down at a table. They then eat some spaghetti a la lady and the Tramp. It was my kind of venue!
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| Bare foot dining |
I also love the section in the Marionette’s circus where wires were used to propel our puppets (the dancers) into seemingly impossible aerial positions.
Not all fun for our Hero
It’s not all fun however and Pinocchio also meets real evil on his travels. Assassins rob him and tie him up and at one point he becomes one of the downtrodden donkeys symbolising the peasant workers of the time who are oppressed. Indeed the debate in Italy at the time the book was written, was about whether education could transform the children of peasants and make them into ‘real boys.’
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| Looks like donkey work to me.. |
The lighting is also outstanding and incredibly innovative which is always so important in dance productions. The excellent music was an eclectic mix more akin to a film score, which fits the atmosphere of each scene. One particular highlight is the marionettes dancing their angular version of Beyonces ‘Crazy In Love,’ – inspired!
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| I say jump – you say how high? |
An awful lot happens in 90 minutes and my mind never wanders for a second. One thing I would say, is this is definitely not particularly a children’s show – although the children that were there loved it too. It is a complex feast for the senses and the brain. In a world where it gets harder and harder to make something new, original and wonderful, Jasmin Vardimon and her company have pulled it off seemingly with the greatest of ease.
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| Pinocchio is born |
Check out other dates for this awesome performance here