The Cocoon at Melbourne Fringe 2017 - Review
Post
Subscribe
Fri 15 Sep 2017 - Sat 30 Sep 2017
The Cocoon, produced by
Northern Theatre Company and showing at The Portable as part of the
Melbourne Fringe Festival , is a unique and modern theatrical experience. The audience is seated on black boxes or steps around a central 'glad-wrapped' installation. It feels like arriving at a party and being trusted find your own space for the evening, comfortable to move about and find other pocket-areas and people to entertain or enthral you.
The Cocoon is an experience of 'witnessing social commentary' rather than the 'old-school' dualism of audience and performers.
The Cocoon is the development of
The Nursery Web, which was also written and directed by Kotryna Gesait.
The action-content is about real people and their experience of relationships: being in a relationship and how they change, starting over, moving on and breaking up. Many types of relationships are explored, but themes of identity, love and growth are universal.
The Cocoon is real-life theatre as characters mirror what we all have experienced and may need to own. It is the very ordinariness of the characters and scenarios that makes
The Cocoon so compelling: more so, its ordinariness makes the show intense and immersive. We are pulled into the action because the human experience being played out is respectfully complex.
Kotryna Gesait has voiced universal themes through likable and authentic characters. To make 'the everyday' multi-dimensional, she has written raw dialogue and reflective monologues driven by brutal honesty. This writing style supports a strong conceptual framework that allows the audience to see the layers of each character: we want to help them because we are in their world. In some way, each character is battling with the need and inevitability of transformation, for growth and change is the only way out of a cocoon.
Paul Robertson who plays
'The Relover', presents the most literal statement of identity transformation: he is a gay man who lovingly assists his partner to become a woman. This story is sensitively portrayed from the 'lover and carer' perspective and his insights are humane and his pain is gut-wrenching.
'The Relover' is beautiful realism: Robertson allows his relationship-journey naturally unfold as his focus remains on love. It is a masterstroke from Gesait to highlight the breadth of emotional challenges within transgender relationships rather than to include stories that are just lip-service or topical.
The Cocoon has strong male characters. Credit needs to Kotryna Gesait for her ability to write strong, multi-dimensional male leads and to actors Ange Arabatzis and Paul Robertson for their powerful deliveries. The male characters struck a chord with men in the transfixed audience who came into the script through opinion and empathy, however, women could also relate to the male characters and began to understand the male perspective that is too often silenced or overlooked. Articulating male emotional intelligence is one of the prime achievements of
The Cocoon. Congratulations to directors Kotryna Gesait, Eva Justine Torkkola and Genevieve Neve for allowing this to happen.
The Cocoon has stand-out performances, which again follows Kotryna's skill in developing masculine roles and authentic dialogue. Ange Arabatzis (
He) who has a background in improv theatre, comedy, writing and direction, is exceptional in his ability to create empathy for a man caught in the grips of relationship despair and breakdown. Paul Robertson (
The Relover) expresses the complex emotions of a mature gay man grappling with the internal and external worlds of transsexuality and how to express true love. These are powerful performances that need to be seen.
The Cocoon sets a high benchmark in conceptual theatre. Universal themes are interwoven and angles worked and reworked so that concepts that may seem to be 'abstract' are in fact very clear, recognisable and relevant. Even though
The Cocoon dramatizes the many 'faces' of relationships and unites them by their similarities and that our stories keep repeating through time, played out in different bodies. Such is the nature of human evolution and our collective journeys.
The Cocoon creates simple cycles connected through short-story narratives all of which detail exquisite moments.
The Cocoon is humanist theatre at its best.
The Cocoon's story-telling is textured and sensualised through clever staging and set design. Chantal Marks has successfully converted Gesait's conceptual vision into strong visual theatre that not only meets budget constraints but which helps to focus audience attention on character pain and their inner emotional torment. Marks has turned a small black room into an intimate cocoon with glad-wrap and architectural flair. Within the cocoon itself, actors animate concepts of 'space and claustrophobic constraint' as relationship issues. Our need for emotional space and growth become fodder for mindful reflection.
The Cocoon is a creative, sensitive and contemporary look at universal relationship themes. It showcases real actor, script-writing, director and set-design talent and vision. Conceptually, it is clear, brilliant and beautifully crafted.
The Cocoon is a fine example of the best of Melbourne Fringe: professional and purpose-driven immersive theatre.
Car Parking and Meet-Ups
There is parking available at the car park opposite the Brunswick Baths, which is about a 2-minute walk to The Portable. If you are meeting people, don't wait on Dawson Street as the street lighting is poor: instead, ask your friends to meet you indoors at The Portable. Grab a seat, a drink and make yourself comfortable.
#brunswick
#community_theatre
#festivals
#personal_development
#theatre
#theatre -reviews
#september
!date 15/09/2017 -- 30/09/2017
%wnmelbourne
196060 - 2023-06-16 04:14:45