Theatre of Silence/Ex-Machina Athens (Greece) - Seeking Oedipus
I had a kind of expectation for this show, because it’s form Greece which is origin country of mime. I had never interested in mime before I saw several images of London International Mime Festival. Unlike what I though before about mime, those images capture my interests.
In this production of Oedipus abstract and simple but very strong visual images are used. Costume designer used only 3 colors which are white, red, black, and each color really helps audience understand the story and the meaning of performance. Usually specific colors are selected according to their symbol and cultural meaning. Because these are easy readable and predictable, sometimes it dose not look like a fresh or a new idea. However in this case I found each color plays a significant role as one of language. This performance decided to take nonverbal structure, so it had to rely on actor’s movement, visual languages, such as set, lighting, costume, and only sound without language. This limit enable this performance to have even much strong feeling and captivating visual moments on the stage. Steep wall or ground reminded me of our life which is unstable and demands hard work and sometimes have danger. It also beautifully depicted the moment of death and love on the wall like dancing in the air.
There were humorous moments which I didn’t know if it was intentional or not. A few people laughed, but I agree with that there are humorous moments in life even middle of tragedy. These kinds of old tragedy are always moving and make me look back into my life and think of philosophic subject ‘What is a life to me?’, ‘What kind of person am I?’. As a theatre designer and also a forever learner, it was definitely a chance to refresh my mind and look around what is going on where I haven’t knew much about. Every time after watching a show Back to home when I look around the place where I am belonging, I found myself they looks different now.
