Dramaturg: Jocelyn Clarke
Director: Niall Henry
Set Design: Jamie Vartan
Sound Design: Joe Hunt
Lighting Design: Barry McKinney
Mournful notes from a cello greet us as we enter the auditorium. Gentle waves slowly build to a storm in the opening sequence of Blue Raincoat Theatre’s The Last Pearl.
Loosely based on the ideas of environmentalist James Lovelock (who proposed the Gaia hypothesis). This visual theatre piece tells the story of M, a pearl diver and her fight to survive in a beleaguered world in the aftermath of a devastating typhoon. As the fragile stilt homes in which M and her community live, are consumed by the sea, she alone is left to adapt in order to survive.
The story is told through movement sequences, scaled models, Bunraku and shadow puppets.
The pace is soporific, the music ambient and aurally tedious, the lighting dull (often so dull, it is hard to discern what is actually happening on stage), the colour palette is relentlessly monochrome save for some flashes of orange sunset, and the sequences so repetitive that this textless narrative fails to convey either a message of hope or resilience or the natural beauty that it could.
There are glimmers of what could have been: a beautiful sky of shimmering stars and the beautifully crafted puppet of M. There is also no doubting the skills of the puppeteers, especially in the diving sequences, where the grace and flow of the movement is both enchanting and moving.
It is such a shame as it promises much but largely fails to deliver. The torpid pace, the murky gloom, the mournful music, the fact that portions of the action take place on the apron of the stage, rendering it impossible to see for sections of the craning audience. Nobody wants a Disney-fication of such serious subject matter but they do need some visual or aural stimulation to sustain interest. You can’t help wish it was so much more.
At best well-intentioned, at worst self-indulgent.
Reviewed on 31 May 2024 continues touring| Image: Steve Rogers
The Reviews Hub Score
A missed opportunity
