In
the hands of ANIKAI Dance, Shakespeare’s texts are taken out of context and
performed mostly in Hindi or American Sign Language.
They
conjure up entire narratives with just one line, one word, one gesture.
ANIKAI Dance presents
The
Canadian premiere of
The
Knocking Within
a
dance-theater duet
Directed and performed by Wendy Jehlen
and Pradhuman Nayak
At the 2013 St.
Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival,
venue: MAI (Montréal,
arts
interculturels)
Sat.
June 15- Sun. June 23
ANIKAI Dance Company comes to
Montréal for the first time to present The
Knocking Within. Just coming off
a tour in India, where the show played to standing-room only audiences and
received rave reviews, The Knocking
Within will be at the MAI, as part of the Montreal Fringe Festival, before
returning to Boston for a an extended return engagement. The Knocking Within is created by
performers Wendy Jehlen and Pradhuman Nayak with lighting design by
Stephen Petrilli.
Inspired
by research into the neuroscience of sleep and the anthropology of dreams,
The Knocking Within weaves a portrait of two lovers and the nightmares
that plague them, unveiling the violence that lies just beneath the
surface. With influences from Capoeira
to Bharata Natyam, American Sign Language poetry to Kalaripayattu, West African dance
to a wide range of Contemporary forms, this
work combines a dizzying array of movement vocabulary, woven together into a new
language of the body. The piece calls
into question the lines we draw between art forms, between cultures, even
between methodologies.
The
Knocking Within
draws on texts from Shakespeare, arguably the most recognizable playwright in
the English language in the world, including lines from Hamlet,
Macbeth, Othello, Twelfth Night, Titus Andronicus
and the sonnets, to effect a re-staging of theater, taking it decidedly into the
realm of visual communication. The texts are present but implicit, creating a
tension between the permanence of print, the persistence of imbedded cultural
stories, and the immanent meaning-making power of bodies moving through space.
These
texts, taken out of context and performed mostly in translation into Hindi or
American Sign Language, conjure up entire narratives with just one line, one
word, one gesture. The challenge for the
audience is to use these references, but not to see these characters as the
Shakespearean ones – Macbeth, Othello, Ophelia – but rather as two unnamed
lovers who could be anyone.
The
show was performed in India just after a horrific gang rape and murder had led
to widespread protest against rampant violence against women. ANIKAI Dance
Artistic Director, Wendy Jehlen, addresses this violence in the play, “So often
we view these events as separate from ourselves. I hope that audience members will connect
viscerally with the characters and carry this understanding into their
engagement with real world violence.”
Past
audiences have responded strongly to the troubled relationship laid bare
onstage. One audience member had this to say: “The Knocking Within is a very intense
and personal experience. At one point during the show I noticed pain in my
fingers. It was only then that I realized I had my hands clutched together,
fingers interwoven, squeezing against my wedding ring. I was completely unaware
of the physical response I was having to the tension unfolding on stage until my
fingers went numb.”
The Knocking
WithinANIKAI Dance
Theatre at the St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe
Festival
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance, Running
time: I hour
Dates: June Sat 15/6 21:45, Sun 16/6 22:30, Mon 17/6 19:45, Thu 20/6 16:45,
Fri
21/6 20:00, Sun 23/6 14:45 Tickets: $8.00/$5.00 students/seniors
(+ $2
service charge)
To
purchase: 514 849-FEST (3378), online at
www.montrealfringe.ca, at the Central
Box Office located at FRINGE Park (corner Rachel/ St-Laurent) or at the MAI as
of one hour before show time. www.anikai.org
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