In a style similar to Germany’s acclaimed Familie Floez, Kulunka Teatro has created a piece of vibrant contemporary mask theatre that transcends language. An elderly man is typing at home at his desk, his wife is nearby, playing cello… they are irritated at each other when their son comes to visit. The father finishes writing his book; the son takes his mother to the doctors. The father is proud of the book he’s had published and doesn’t care for the diagnosis of his wife’s condition. There are early flashbacks to how the couple met and courted; him a young writer, her a concert cellist. We are brought back to the current state of play and the slow unravelling of Dorine’s grip on things; being unable to dress correctly, not recognising André, his face literally a ‘blank’ to her, and him doing his best to cope… and care.
Kulunka Teatro is a young company, founded in 2010 in the Basque Country, Spain. This is their first masked piece, initiated from a desire to experiment with different stage languages. It is hard to believe that mask work has not been their speciality. In making André and Dorine they made sure the first stages of Alzheimer’s were clear for the audience, then juxtaposed this with the flashbacks to an earlier life of warmth and humour. How to convey things without words? The essence of a gesture, a search… a necessity to choose a movement carefully – the speed, the rhythm, the dynamic. Here every movement is in service of the story. The story is told with believable characters, with which the audience can identify. It’s a wonder to believe Kulunka is just three performers, for the story is full of many other characters, and the domestic landscape so rich and embodied. The audience loved this show… vivid, fiercely committed and movingly woven into reality.