Shakespeare’s “Maag-Pehh” at Tallinn NO99 Theatre
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Until yesterday I thought the newest & most innovative theatre in Estonia was NO99. The actors & set decorators & directors that I
would recommend as a complex visual masterpiece to any visitor of
Estonia, on quite a high level.. Just go and see Nafta! and you’ll know what I meanBut yesterday I was really forced to evaluate my opinion. At least
considering the Shakespeare MacBeth performance. Unless you’re a huge
Shakespeare fanatic or a fan of Jaan Türnpu & Anne Toomik, or real
banal modern theatre, don’t go there!
I actually like Shakespeare, although many people don’t. I’ve seen
quite a lot of different versions of Hamlet & Merchant of Venice
& R&J etc. Plus, I think I’ve seen quite a lot of theatre
performances in general. What I like about Shakespeare are the huge
possibilities it offers, one can practically do anything with it.
NO99 didn’t do much, really, besides the common modern theatre crap
one could see on stage. People switching their roles constantly, using
chairs & shaman drums only as main requisites, scenes falling into
each other, a little bit (could have been much more!) shadow theatre,
and most of all: being extremely loud and annoying.
Perhaps that was the intention. Perhaps. But even
in this case I think it could have been done better. There was
everything that annoys someone in modern theatre & that has been
used for the whole end of 20th century theatre already. No surprises. No
music, almost no requisites, the compulsory sex scene, distorted
voices, and, most of all: being very loud & aggressive & the
actors yelling everything they could say at normal voices. Full
disappointment.
Of course, one could explain all this. One could say that the piece
is so heavy that one shouldn’t like it anyway. But what’s the point of
doing bad theatre? Should that be art?
Btw, it was the first time I saw the main actor reading his text out withouth knowing it by heart. Not nice. One could
see it as art as well. I didn’t. The MacBeth figure stayed behind other
figures, just like the actors stayed behing their figures. Of the
marvellous NO-group really nobody could show what they were able to do.
All very basic. Maybe that was the point too, one shouldn’t expect
anything in this performance? And I also missed the “magic” part, the
“maag pehh” part…
Any good things at all? Hm, let me think. Perhaps throwing the dices
in the end. But it was far too short & didn’t have the effect it
could have.
I could go on endlessly I suppose. And I could try to find lots of
post modern & theatre theoretical explanations why the play was the
way it was. But what keeps me from doing it is feeling I had yesterday…
I really thought that if the play had had 2 acts I would have left
during the pause. I can see bad theatre shows anywhere, I don’t have to
go to NO99 for that. Even if it’s supposed to be art…
P.S. I can’t wait to read professional theatre critics’ opinions on this performace…