Reviews

Kindur (tour – Norwich, Epic Studios)

Anne Morley-Priestman

Multimedia, interactive and movement pieces can all amount to so much less than their names promise. This is certainly not the case with Kindur: The Adventurous Life of Icelandic Sheep which TPO, Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscano and Crying Out Loud have brought to this year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival. It’s a magical experience for both children and adults, one which works partly because it’s obvious that a great deal of care has gone into its presentation.

The projections onto both a cyclorama screen and the floor-cloth flow seamlessly into one another, enhanced by some interesting sounds where appropriate. Reeds sway in the breeze, flowers bud, sheet-ice forms (and cracks), geysers burble away, the Northern Lights display, birds wheel in the light, wolves scrabble at the sheep-pen in the dark, volcanoes erupt spewing hot lava and revealing the trolls of Norse legend. Meanwhile, three dancers wearing ordinary practice clothes but with wooly hearts which light up (the audience is also presented with these) take us into an ovine world.

Anyone who goes to pantomimes knows that excruciating moment when four or six children are plucked (more or less willingly) from the audience to meet the principal comics (not to mention covering the scene and costume change for the walk-down finale). Here a flock of very eager lambs capered across thin ice, negotiated mud-pools and grass-tufts, baa-ed in unison and, I suspect, found their imaginations thoroughly engaged.

Francesca Gandi and Davide Venturini are responsible for the artistic direction. The deceptively simply choreography is by Anna Balducci, Erika Faccini and Paola Lattanzi and and designs are those of Elsa Mersi (digital), Spartaco Cortesi (sound), Livia Cortesi (props) and Fiamma Ciotti Farulli (costumes). The performers for the various Norwich performances are Valentina Consoli, Martina Gregori, Angelica Portioli and Valentina Caini.