Review: BLUEBELLE, Theatre Re - The Lowry
Photo credit: Chris Nash
Following the production’s world premiere at the 2022 London International Mime Festival, Theatre Re bring their latest creation Bluebelle to The Lowry for northern audiences to enjoy.
Bluebelle combines plots and characters from ancient folktales and stories from Angela Carta, Italo Calvino, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault to share a story of fertility and the journey into parenthood. The performance begins with a ghost light illuminating the stage, attracting the spirits of former actors to re-enact various stories, and they are inspired to tell the tale of Bluebelle when their attention is drawn to a bunch of bluebells. In a far away land, a King and Queen were placed under a spell that disrupted fertility and their longing for a child brings them to call upon the Bluebell Fairy for assistance with magic, however magic comes at a cost, especially for those who don’t maintain their promises.
Collaboratively devised by the company themselves alongside Theatre Re’s founder and Artistic Director Guillaume Pigé, this story of the struggle of fertility and the challenges of parenthood is so powerful and beautifully told through physical theatre. The whole company are incredible at encapsulating the essence of the piece through expression of the body and face, so the absence of dialogue certainly does not hinder the storytelling. One of the many physical theatre techniques used by the performers for this piece is Visual Vernacular, a style that is primarily performed by deaf actors, which incorporates BSL signs combined with gesture and facial expressions to enhance the storytelling in a visually captivating way, whilst also making the communication of the story more accessible for all. To begin with, some elements of the storyline are a little difficult to interpret, but as the tale unravels, it becomes clearer and clearer and also allows the audience to think back to the earlier stages of the piece with a newfound understanding.
Throughout the whole performance, there is an underscore of musical instruments, sound effects and non-lyrical singing to compliment the story’s ambiance – all of this audio accompaniment is performed live on stage by composers and co-creators of the piece Alex Judd and Henry Webster using a looper pedal to layer sounds over each other and to allow the accompaniment to build in accordance with each scene of the story. The music has been very carefully thought out and cleverly created so that each section of the story is represented differently, and in a post-show announcement, audiences are given the opportunity to purchase this unique soundtrack so that they can relive the tale of Bluebelle in their minds with the same musical accompaniment playing in the background.
The show has the illusion of a naked set as there are no backdrops or scenery, but it does have several onstage manual fly facilities to further the image that they are theatre ghosts playing on the stage and are operating the rigging systems themselves to add to their own re-enactments, flying in various props which had previously been suspended above the scenes playing out. There is also a short but sweet moment of shadow work to convey an interaction between two characters played by the same performer, which is a creative way to get around the obstacle without detracting from the flow of the performance.
A magical, mesmerising tale of fertility and parenthood reminding the world of the stories that shape life, Bluebelle is an innovative masterpiece that proves that Theatre Re really does deserve its status as one of the UK’s leading visual theatre companies.
***** Five Stars
Reviewed by: Jess Dalloway