Roots

This is a delightful production that marries so many different genres and traditions in such a quirky and satirical manner that it becomes positively irresistible and enchanting. The show is based on the premise of adapting folkloristic tales with a rather unusual twist, somewhat in the tradition of Angela Carter and Italo Calvino. Andrade’s adaptations go much further as they combine several performance art and storytelling traditions and techniques, to create a visually stunning and delightfully amusing show. 

Animation sequences on a large screen are combined with live performance, voice-over narration, and live music (including instruments such as a Peruvian prayer boxes, donkey jaws, violins and musical saws). Several tales are presented as a sequence of separate vignettes each with their own peculiar story and characters and each with a unique mode of presentation.

The stories often begin as innocuous and then dramatically descend into macabre absurdism. The show opens with a story of a very fat cat with an appetite so large that it has untold destructive potential. The story of the three wishes of the unremarkable woman has an unexpected outcome with some interesting and bemusing political tones. Another tale involving a marriage between an ant and a mouse proves to be a rather trying relationship. Folkloristic tales often have an identifiable moral which is preaching about right and wrong and the perils of misjudging or mistreating others. The stories in this show have more contemporary messages which allude to concerns such as commercial consumption, capitalist greed, gender disparity, genuine benevolence and the destruction of planet. This gives the stories relevance and the style of performance a wonderful sardonic tone that is beautifully sustained throughout the entire show.

The cinematic quality of the animation combined with the deliberate lighting effects often evokes the melodramatic mode of early silent cinema or the elaborate study of gesture in mime artistry, such as that presented by Marcel Marceau. The tales are described and presented as a kind of joke, but they forcefully bring to life the idiom, Many a true word is spoken in jest. Roots is a rare and highly original form of performance that is a truly exquisite viewing experience.

Patricia Di Risio

Photographer: Leigh Webber