Adelaide Festival. Kidd Pivot in association with Eponymous. 17 Mar 2023
Canadian mob Kidd Pivot have been a long-standing force for entertaining entanglements of dance with theatre. In Revisor, the highly credentialed artistic director, Crystal Pite, and Writer-in-Residence Jonathon Young have created a cracker situation in re-interpreting Russian Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 play, The Government Inspector, utilising all manner of theatrical trickery.
Gogol apparently was surprised his deep and meaningful tale was interpreted as farce, which is how everybody ever since treats it, except for an expressionistic Russian production nearly 100 years ago and its descendants. But Pite and Young have positively supercharged it. Brilliantly costumed like their egos, the village bureaucrats are anxious about the news of an inspector from headquarters checking up on them. The mirth is non-stop as they mistake a penurious minor official for the inspector, who readily accepts bribes and largess from the gormless rubes.
The opening combination of dance, acting, and voice on a minimalist and moody set accompanied by chiaroscuro lighting and tension-laden original music is absolutely thrilling to behold. Bravo! The dancer/actors exaggerate and angulate with crisp precision. Individuals morph into swarms and tableaus are swept away as fast as they are formed. And here’s the kicker; whilst the performers mouth their words, their voices are dissociated with slight mistiming recreating everything funny about a bad Zoom meeting. The whole thing was a feast.
And then everything changes. Smack in the middle of the show is a very long tranche of modern dance de rigueur in comfortable clothing and abstraction to convey Gogol’s more serious points about corruption of the soul. It is enervating and while well executed and a thrill for the pure dance fans, it misses the theatrical panache of the first segment.
Eventually, the devices of the opening scenes return and the focus is on the letter, but the delicious fright on the faces of the bureaucrats when the real inspector is announced is missing. Nonetheless, the excellence of the performances both on stage and by the voice artists are unchallengeable. And Crystal Pite’s choreography and direction are awesome. The whole shebang is technically extraordinary to watch but it’s two speed format was peculiar.
David Grybowski
When: 17 to 19 Mar
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
