A Tres Bandes, Solfatara

Best of BE Festival

A Tres Bandes, Solfatara

A hairy-chested man in a tutu shouldn’t be funny. But he riffs off a woman in the audience whose enthusiasm is neon, and a twitch of a smile escapes, a twinkle in the eye belies the studied exterior. It’s perhaps helped by the fact that much of the rest of Fantasy No 10; ‘The Beauty of Life’ by Compagnia Vladimir Tzekov from Granada is deliberately incomprehensible.

The piece seems to parody sentimentalism, torch songs, arrogance and wannabe heroes strutting about in leather. One character is unceremoniously tipped out of a wheelchair, and deadpan sex interrupts philosophical musings. Text morphs into movement and the sentiment may become more genuine. It’s certainly surreal.

In contrast, Solfatara by A Tres Bandes of Barcelona is accessibly witty as a couple’s life descends into chaos. We are told that human behaviour involves volcanic eruptions into private and public embarrassment, then shown some. They include a huge row about puff pastry and a dinner party that lacks food and alcohol.

Monica and Miquel have a real comic touch, helped by the onstage presence of ‘fear’, a disruptive character, the terrorist in the room. The hilarious English subtitles can also abandon the Spanish dialogue (eg ‘Puff pastry recipe. Dramatic interest = 0’). The result is adept, verbally dexterous, well observed and very funny, as well as tinged with tragedy that our connections are so petty.

The last piece in this trio of shorts from this year’s Birmingham European festival is L’Absent by the Brussels-based Compagnie du Geste qui Sauve. Its subtle, fluid mime conjures up a lost lover, as the male performer glides between playing a shower, kettle, chair, scarf or coat and an elusive ghost. Currently barely twenty minutes long, it has gentle depth, ingenuity and a mute intimacy.

All three performances won prizes at the BE festival, and are touring to bring a piece of that event to venues nationwide. A question and answer session has all the performers on stage afterwards (there’s also post-show music from the Scandimaniacs). We learn, for example, that director Manuel Bonillo uses musical structures for his work, and Artaud replaced Grotowski as inspiration; the Belgium company seek the simplest gesture to tell everyday stories, so objects are impregnated with memory; and Solfatara’s priceless subtitles were conceived just for the UK performances. All in all, a varied, refreshing programme.