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SINGAPORE / Business Times / Singapore Arts Festival 2009 / June 10, 2009
The award-winning production which deals with the topic of old age, promises to be a multi-layered, highly nuanced production, writes CLARISSA TAN
THEATRE is like a game, with the actors playing different parts, but what if, over and above inhabiting specific roles, the actors demonstrate a condition? And what if the condition was the most unglamorous one of all, that of growing old?
True to form: All the props are genuinely ancient and everything that appears on stage was salvaged from apartments of the elderly who had passed away
Long Life, an award-winning production by Latvia's New Riga Theatre, follows one day in the lives of several retired elderly people. The old folks share a communal flat in Riga, but the events depicted could be happening anywhere in the world, said director Alvis Hermanis.
'Being old is not at all fashionable,' he said. 'Yet it is a now a universal thing, as societies everywhere are getting older. The question of who will support and pay for the pensioners affects us all. It's a drastic shift in our political, economic and cultural landscape.'
Long Life, which won the grand prize at the International Theatre Festival Bitef in 2005, is 'not a normal play', said Hermanis. 'There is no text at all, no dialogue; it is like a silent movie. It depicts the lives of old people from early morning to night, but all this is compressed to about two hours.'
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Long Life is that all the actors are young, mostly in their 30s. They will not be using cosmetics to make them appear more aged, but will instead convey their age through their mannerisms and actions, said Hermanis.
'We want the miracle of transformation without the help of make-up,' said the director, who has been hailed as one of Europe's most exciting and experimental. 'With the technology of make-up, we could create the illusion that the actors are old, but then that would make no sense at all. Theatre is about playing a game, it's about imitating.'
The actors spent more than one year researching and spending time with the elderly, he continued. 'In the beginning it was depressing for them. Emotionally, it was not very funny. They had to take on a new regime, of being very, very old and disabled and physically it required enormous effort. They had to go for special massage therapy twice a week.'
While the actors will be playing at being elderly, all the props will be genuinely ancient and used. Everything that appears on stage - be it furniture, drapes or utensils - was salvaged from apartments of the elderly who had passed away, said Hermanis. And because there is no dialogue, these objects have an instrumental role in conveying much of the emotional and dramatic thrust of the play, often acting as symbols.
'One of the main things we wanted to investigate was how the old tend to adopt everyday life rituals,' said Hermanis. 'They become cut off from socialising and create a hermetic world of their own. After a while, it's about every day repeating the same thing.
'It's tragicomical, there are many funny parts. And we can see that old people can also become like children, acting as though they are in kindergarten.'
Alvis Hermanis. Photo: Sergey Lisovsky / voir.ca
It all promises to be a multi-layered, highly nuanced production. There are the young actors playing old people who are performing their own rituals or acting like kids, and the old props playing, well, themselves. And then, of course, there is the fact that the actors themselves are getting older as the play goes along, from day to day, place to place. The production has now played more than 200 times in about 30 countries, and Hermanis says he has the idea of continuing the play for the next 50 years, using the same actors who will eventually 'catch up' with their meant-to-be stage age. Would the actors be willing to do that, play the same highly ritualistic role over and over, for half a century?
'We are a repertory theatre, so theoretically we can continue playing this performance for a long time,' said Hermanis. 'Let's see, let's see if we can make this a really different performance about ageing.'
Long Life plays on June 11, 12 and 13, 8pm, at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.
Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
SINGAPORE / Business Times / Singapore Arts Festival 2009 / June 10, 2009
The award-winning production which deals with the topic of old age, promises to be a multi-layered, highly nuanced production, writes CLARISSA TAN
THEATRE is like a game, with the actors playing different parts, but what if, over and above inhabiting specific roles, the actors demonstrate a condition? And what if the condition was the most unglamorous one of all, that of growing old?
True to form: All the props are genuinely ancient and everything that appears on stage was salvaged from apartments of the elderly who had passed away
Long Life, an award-winning production by Latvia's New Riga Theatre, follows one day in the lives of several retired elderly people. The old folks share a communal flat in Riga, but the events depicted could be happening anywhere in the world, said director Alvis Hermanis.
'Being old is not at all fashionable,' he said. 'Yet it is a now a universal thing, as societies everywhere are getting older. The question of who will support and pay for the pensioners affects us all. It's a drastic shift in our political, economic and cultural landscape.'
Long Life, which won the grand prize at the International Theatre Festival Bitef in 2005, is 'not a normal play', said Hermanis. 'There is no text at all, no dialogue; it is like a silent movie. It depicts the lives of old people from early morning to night, but all this is compressed to about two hours.'
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Long Life is that all the actors are young, mostly in their 30s. They will not be using cosmetics to make them appear more aged, but will instead convey their age through their mannerisms and actions, said Hermanis.
'We want the miracle of transformation without the help of make-up,' said the director, who has been hailed as one of Europe's most exciting and experimental. 'With the technology of make-up, we could create the illusion that the actors are old, but then that would make no sense at all. Theatre is about playing a game, it's about imitating.'
The actors spent more than one year researching and spending time with the elderly, he continued. 'In the beginning it was depressing for them. Emotionally, it was not very funny. They had to take on a new regime, of being very, very old and disabled and physically it required enormous effort. They had to go for special massage therapy twice a week.'
While the actors will be playing at being elderly, all the props will be genuinely ancient and used. Everything that appears on stage - be it furniture, drapes or utensils - was salvaged from apartments of the elderly who had passed away, said Hermanis. And because there is no dialogue, these objects have an instrumental role in conveying much of the emotional and dramatic thrust of the play, often acting as symbols.
'One of the main things we wanted to investigate was how the old tend to adopt everyday life rituals,' said Hermanis. 'They become cut off from socialising and create a hermetic world of their own. After a while, it's about every day repeating the same thing.
'It's tragicomical, there are many funny parts. And we can see that old people can also become like children, acting as though they are in kindergarten.'
Alvis Hermanis. Photo: Sergey Lisovsky / voir.ca
It all promises to be a multi-layered, highly nuanced production. There are the young actors playing old people who are performing their own rituals or acting like kids, and the old props playing, well, themselves. And then, of course, there is the fact that the actors themselves are getting older as the play goes along, from day to day, place to place. The production has now played more than 200 times in about 30 countries, and Hermanis says he has the idea of continuing the play for the next 50 years, using the same actors who will eventually 'catch up' with their meant-to-be stage age. Would the actors be willing to do that, play the same highly ritualistic role over and over, for half a century?
'We are a repertory theatre, so theoretically we can continue playing this performance for a long time,' said Hermanis. 'Let's see, let's see if we can make this a really different performance about ageing.'
Long Life plays on June 11, 12 and 13, 8pm, at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.
Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
