Whether the staging appears archaic and the performers brittle and corpse-like, or the piece is minimalist, playful or vibrant and fresh, the works of the Gergye Krisztian Company are always charged with a potent atmosphere.
As with Gergye’s other pieces, Gaia focuses the observer on the body; we don’t just see the performer, we see a physicality. Gaia, according to the ancient Greeks, is the Mother Goddess who symbolizes the Earth. Tárnok Marica is very effective in this role, partly because her physicality is so well suited to portray the matriarch type, but also because her performance fills the space with a very energetic and powerful presence.
The first creature we meet, on what starts out as a fairly empty black stage, is not Gaia, but a much more slight, silent shadow. This shadow flits on, off and about the stage throughout the piece, orbiting Gaia like a dark planet. It’s character appears to vary, but it is always elusive.
Gaia tells her story in little skits which range from puppetry to stand-up comedy to confession and beyond. She gives birth to her playthings, and subsequently plays with them. Mother Earth becomes the child playing with her own creations. Often the border between Mother Earth trying to understand herself and a woman trying to locate her station and find acceptance in society becomes unclear. She shifts from child to woman and monster to goddess. She searches for beauty, identity, sexuality and recognition. Though she mostly communicates with the audience, the Shadow is often there to worship and love her, to torture and hate her, to dance with her, and even at one point, put on a fat suit and try to imitate her.
The Shadow’s presence begins as a minor irritation but becomes more invasive as the piece progresses. Visually it has no identity, its face has been covered by a black cloth, all its clothes are black. Its appearance is androgynous, the clothes are masculine while actively allowing us to see that she is a woman. She could be a rejected part of Gaia’s identity. She could be mankind worshipping and idolizing her. She could be a secret lover.
The only thing Gaia tells us in words is that she cannot find her story, and so what we are seeing is the story of Gaia searching for her story. It evolves as we watch, disappearing at the same time as it is created, and suggesting that the creation story of the earth and of mankind, though it started a long time ago, is still in progress now.
There are hundreds of moments in this piece and many of them are very effective. At times the extremely abstract and fragmented structure of the piece lost me a little, especially at moments that were slow paced and seemingly full of meaning that I couldn’t relate to. But the performances given by both Tárnok Marica and Gresó Nikoletta were so powerful that temporary lapses were always picked up again and I recovered the concentration and enjoyment that I could also sense in the audience around me.
Gaia – Contemporary Puppet-Dance-Theatre
December 20th at 8 p.m.
Tel. +36 1 466 4627