Theater review: 'Water Drops' from Italy
A review of a stage production of The Children's & Juvenile Theater Festival of Hamedan Ali Reza Narqi -- Theater Means Discovery.
What is theater? Is it something other than discovering the novelty? Children's Theater is all about discovering the newness. In this type of theater everything is fresh, because all of the children's perceptions, even their perceptions of nature are something new. Therefore, in this kind of the work, the most important thing is creating the moments of communication, making children theatre's interlocutors.
Directed by Go Goglielmo Papa from Italy, Water Drops illustrates the rain drops which look like light and gold, and persuades the audience to discover them. The production alters the water in a creative and impressive way. First, it visualizes the water, and then pours it on the actors' figures. In the middle of the play, the water changes itself into a natural, social and geographical reality. It is presented as a limited resource which influences the collective life of the animals and the human beings. Finally it changes itself into an element that implies freshness and kindness and even provides communication between people. The same Guglielmo Papa, blowing a trumpet at the entrance of the theater, announces the play and compares his play to a wind that blows from Italy.
The play is performed in English, Italian and Persian. This is not just a device to simplify the communication with Iranian spectators, but a meaningful element that means going beyond the borders as would a stream of water. The play proceeds so smoothly that nothing is left undetected. However, in spite of the appearance of control, the show makes improvisational space for audience interaction.
Water Drops is a good example of creative set design. Beyond design, the play makes use of the qualities and textures of the materials. The bowls, the bucket situated at the centre, the glassy dishes that transfer the water into the bucket and the sound of splashing are all integral elements necessary to the whole.
In this round of the festival, the difference between the Iranian and the international pieces had nothing to do with technology or budget, but it might resemble the difference between a bird that flies and a wingless one which remains on the earth