DramaFeaturedLondonReview

La Manékine – MimeLondon, Barbican

Reviewer: Richard Maguire

Creator: La Pendue

January’s highlight MimeLondon returns to the city, and opening proceedings is La Manékine, a dark story about a woman who is accidentally sold off to the Devil by her father. Performed by just two people with the help of a cast of puppets and creepy masks, this production by French company La Pendue is the perfect accompaniment to short days and cold nights.

Estelle Charlier plays most of the roles either in person or through a series of macabre marionettes while Martin Kaspar Orkestar is a true one-man band; at one point he manages to play the drums, the accordion and the clarinet simultaneously. His oompah beats give the piece a moody and otherworldly merriness that matches the action completely.

The tone is Gothic meets Weimar Republic, the sort of thing that The Tiger Lillies used to do so well. Of course, La Manékine is on a much smaller scale than Shockheaded Peter, but it’s always gripping and inventive. At one point, the young woman (Charlier in an eerie mask that suggests brittle hope and eternal despair in equal measures) uses mirrors to reject the Devil’s sexual advances. Anthony Lopez’s lights are uncanny and precise, bending across the stage to find their target.

Based on the short story ‘The Girl Without Hands’ by the Brothers Grimm, it’s difficult to see how this was once seen as a tale for children. La Pendue shows just how tragic and foul the narrative really is. The Grimm Brothers settled on a happy ending, and while this version is very faithful to the original, the conclusion is bittersweet, gesturing to a reunion that comes at a cost.

There may only be two people on stage, but the world that the pair conjure up is thrillingly alive with betrayals and heartache; A sombre European world that, although steeped in nostalgia, is still out there if we dared to look.

Runs until 18 January 2025

MimeLondon runs until 2 February 2025

The Reviews Hub Score

Otherworldly

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The Reviews Hub - London

The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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