Or You Could Kiss Me

Synopsis

Love, memory and the power of the unspoken. Using a bare stage, a handful of domestic props and the puppetry that is Handspring’s trademark. In the winter of 2036, in a shabby apartment in Port Elizabeth, two old men search for a way to say goodbye after a lifetime spent together. In the perfect summer of 1971, in a very different South Africa, their handsome younger selves search for the courage to fall in love. And poised halfway between these two stories - one imagined, one remembered - their real-life counterparts bear witness to both the beginning and ending of an incredible journey.

Our Review:

Andrew Girvan - 6 October 2010

Taking us into the future to reflect on the past, Or You Could Kiss Me is set in the South Africa of 2036. The story of gay lovers who have spent their lives together since meeting as teenagers, we see stories from the lives of Handspring's founders Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler littered through Neil Bartlett's script.

As a piece we constantly drift through time, as Mr A and Mr B face the inevitability of death, we see the couple meet for the first time, having swum out to a diving platform. A young Mr B's initial dive into the "water" of the Cottesloe stands apart as a moment of magical puppetry, manipulating the carved figure to show the effortlessness of cutting through the water.

The piece struggles to find a clear narrative, with Adjoa Andoh making a strong attempt to keep things on track as the omnipotent authority figures of lawyer, doctor and housekeeper in the couple's life, addressing the characters both directly and through microphones, removin...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 20 October 2010:

A collaboration between South African puppeteers Handspring and innovative British theatre director Neil Bartlett seemed irresistible, and what they’ve produced is a pretty unique show with five puppets and eight performers on a bare stage in the round. An old gay man close to death looks back on the early stages of his 67-year partnership in flashbacks. Narration is provided by the excellent Adjoa Andoh as nurse, housekeeper, solicitor and some sort of psychiatrist / psychologist giving a lecture. Puppets Mr A and Mr B have young and old versions ’manipulated’ by the same performers, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, with four bare-footed puppeteer / actor ‘assistants’ dressed in black suits. This all takes place on a bare stage with props stored underneath, handed up and down to and from actors by two visible stage managers. There are six entrances, four steps and two walkways, one through a giant rusting wall and one through double-doors. There is some extraordinarily effective staging – swimming, a party, a squash game and a car journey – during the uninterrupted 100 minutes, but I found myself admiring the stagecraft and the creativity more than I engaged with the storytelling. It’s original and intriguing, but didn’t have as much emotional depth as I was expecting; it was as if I was a student of theatre studying it from a technical perspective. That said, I don’t regret going and its a worthy experiment – much more so that Katie Mitchell’s pointless deconstructions. Go to admire rather than enjoy....

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