Director: Michael Vogel
Founded in 1994, Familie Flöz is an international pool of theatre-maker based in Berlin. This is the company’s fifth visit to the city as part of the final London International Mime Festival drawing to a close this weekend.
The production’s Artistic Director and co-founder Michael Vogel works with students at the university and wished to look at class, injustice and unfairness in society for this tragic-comedy production. The creative process started with improvisation without masks before deciding which characters make it onto the stage and then collaborating with designer Hajo Schüler to make the masks.
In Feste the setting is the backyard of a large villa by the sea. Behind a wall appear two young women. One is very rich and is about to marry, and the preparations are taking place for her wedding. The other is very poor, she’s pregnant and looking for a place to bring her child into the world. These two women set the stage for all the other characters and all the events that happen.
The fixed focus masks have exaggerated features with elongated noses and cartoon-like features. The bride is apparently in a constant state of unhappiness in that she is getting married and there is little to explain why the backpacking pregnant young woman turns up. Is she just a traveller lost or an unwelcome guest at this gated wedding?
The company has a unique style and the laughs come and go, interspersed with melancholic moments to a welcome live duo of musicians. However the set feels static and mundane with an old fashioned feel to the lighting and sound effects, in fact the whole production feels dated.
Sadly, the masks add nothing to the story line. The plot itself is disjointed with odd subplots which go nowhere but hint at other funnier story lines without fulfilling their promise. The characters are well acted, and played for laughs but they feel bland for 2023. Rather than getting a taste of the exciting radical feeling coming from edgy modern day Berlin, we get something that is obvious and rather provincial: a mundane farce and unfashionable in its slapstick humour.
In achieving Vogel’s stated aim of reflecting on the unfairness of modern society there is a real missed opportunity here to utilise this pool of young creative talent in observing and expressing, with humour using this oldest form of art, the tragedy and anger of the news stories of the present day. The plot is too slow, meaning so much more could have been attained in its running time both in bringing more into the storyline and in allowing these characters to feel much more pertinent and relevant.
Runs until 4 February 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Old fashioned slapstick
