AGAINST NATURE choreographed by James Kudelka (Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie). At the Citadel (304 Parliament). Runs to May 15. $50. 416-364-8011. See listings. Rating: NN
Few theatre or dance lovers will be familiar with Frenchman Joris-Karl Huysmanss 1884 novel Against Nature (A Rebours). But this precious, monotonous show with music, dance and singing wont make you want to order it on amazon.ca.
Choreographer James Kudelka, whose abstract dance works have always been more successful than his story ballets, is restricted by the inward-looking observations of the books protagonist, Jean des Esseintes, who eschews bourgeois society to hole up with books and aesthetic philosophizing.
Not much happens, but thats not the problem. We never connect to what Jean called the Master here and played by baritone Alexander Dobson is trying to communicate. And filling out the work with two figures playing servants (baritone Geoffrey Sirett and dancer Laurence Lemieux) doesnt pay off.
This could be intriguing material for an intimate work. But in Kudelka and librettist Alex Poch-Goldins hands, its a pretentious, self-indulgent show that feels much longer than its one-hour running time.
The librettos text is at times richly poetic, but the scenes go nowhere. And the movement rarely feels like choreography, except in one section about Salome in which Kudelka and his performers efficiently play out a scene of twisted obsession, murder and sex.
Speaking of Salome, Against Nature is said to have influenced the wantonness of the title character in Oscar Wildes The Picture Of Dorian Gray. If only some of that amorality and decadence seeped into this show.
The performers do their best with the limited material, but unlike Kudelka and Poch-Goldins previous collaboration, From The House Of Mirth, Against Nature gives us much less to watch at least from the performers.
Jeremy Mimnaghs vivid projections onto a painting frame morph with uncanny eeriness, helping to suggest themes and moods.
The most memorable part of the show isnt obviously theatrical. Its James Rolfes score, which in the capable hands of pianist Steven Philcox, violinist Parmela Attariwala and cellist Carina Reeves captures the capricious and seductive nature of Huysmanss eccentric figure, especially in one disturbing passage where the strings go out of tune to evoke the putrid decay of plants.
