THEATRE: LANDS END

REVIEW BY AMELIA GROOM

People turn into other people, vanish into the solid floor, appear out of a suitcase, float in billowing bubbles, dance with a giant hand. Miniature houses move with lives of their own, sheets of paper dance through the air, and little dolls morph into enormous bloated creatures.

A sense of magic underlies Philippe Genty’s entire world of ideas, images, sound and movement. A French artist and master of illusion, he has been enchanting audiences around the world for more than four decades with his fantastical puppetry and physical theatre.

Originally studying as a graphic designer in Paris, in 1961 he set out on a four-year tour over four continents. Since then, he and his Compagnie Philippe Genty have performed all over the world, developing a theatrical vocabulary that embraces illusion, puppetry, dance and mime.

The company is currently performing their latest work, Lands Ends, at Sydney Theatre for a limited season. Following a male and female character on a surreal and ephemeral journey through the subconscious, it comprises a series of extraordinary scenes that push the boundaries of the imagination.

Conceived and directed with Genty’s long-time collaborator and wife Mary Underwood, the production features a brilliant cast of seven multi-skilled performers who offer a breathtaking visual feast of fantasy and whimsy. At times cute and cheeky, at times melancholic and haunting, it takes us to a dream-like landscape where things are fleeting, mysterious, transient and often absurd.

‘As everyone knows, reality imitates illusion,’ says Gentry. According to him, his company ‘travels through a universe where absurd, derisive, cruel images fit into a method of association without narrative logic, as in a dream – images which rediscover old wounds, reawaken first fears, first desires and bear witness to our vertiginous within.’

Lands End
Until September 6
Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay
Tickets: $59-$69, 9250 1999 or www.sydneytheatre.org.au