Attempting to combine physical theatre with traditional Slavic song, acclaimed Czech directors Martin Kukučka and Lukáš Trpišovský have created an enchanting performance about death and grief, but failed to put it into context.
Whiling away fifty minutes in the Zoo’s Monkey House while seven energetic performers hurl themselves elegantly around the confined space is perfectly enjoyable, but the narrative motivating such intriguing visuals is almost entirely elusive. Employing amusing sound effects and delightful mime, an old man helps us visualise his small wooden house. Then he drops dead.
Three women and three men, presumably his mourners, enter the house and for the next forty-five minutes struggle, dance, fight and with one another. There’s a felt-tip foetus, a broken marriage and a physically abusive wife, but few of these details seem to cohere.
For those like me, whose limbs rarely seem to do what they tell them to, there is a certain jealous delight to be found in watching those who appear to inhabit their bodies from pointed toe to syncopated ear. The choreography in The Weepers is absolutely delightful and the moments of song are interesting despite their incoherence. However, though the play is fun, it is also bewildering. On the whole, The Weepers is lovely but inconsequential.
[Natasha Long]
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