The Image of a Housewife and the Emptiness of Infinity
For this year's SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER, JAMU has prepared two productions - The Image of a Woman and Origin of Clouds or What It Means to Believe in Something. The former takes place in a closed apartment, the latter in an infinite space.
The non-verbal production The Image of a Woman offers us a glimpse into the life of a housewife. Through creative means, we are presented with monotony, feelings of unappreciation, frustration, and guilt from showing even a minimum of personality.
This production rests on the performance of Barbara Šimová, who manages to hold the audience's attention for the entire thirty minutes of the show. This actress has excellent comedic timing and good movement, and communicates well with the audience.
The set is simple, making do with an armchair on a carpet, a table with a chair, a bowl of dough, and a back wall decorated with festive plates. Each prop is worked with, and its placement has its own purpose. Like that of the frustrated woman, the scene awakens our own imagination – the plates become hats, the living room becomes a cabaret, and the woman becomes an armchair. Yes, even the actress herself is transformed here to some extent into a mere prop – the adornment of the home that every “ideal” housewife should be.
The Image of a Woman is a playful and creative piece that conveys the character’s frustrations well. The only slight problem are the small moments where the viewer wonders if the scene drags on too long because it is trying to evoke an atmosphere of monotony in the woman’s life. Or is it done this way unintentionally? Despite this shortcoming, The Image of a Woman is a production that holds the viewer throughout.
Origin of Clouds, or What It Means to Believe in Something brings emptiness to the stage that even the four actors, their words, and a few props cannot fill. The work feels cold and repetitive – the text that is projected at the beginning is then recited by the actors with only minor changes, and at the end it is projected again, albeit in random order. The words that are delivered seem choppy and empty, even in the actors’ interpretation.
The movement on stage is distracting and at times makes it difficult to understand the actors. The dragging of the construction on the ground creates an extremely loud and unpleasant sound, and recordings about faith blend uncomfortably together with other sounds that are being played. The viewers thus have no chance to get into the production and there is nothing to hold their attention. Overall, the production makes the viewer feel uncomfortable, and the subject lacks a more interesting concept. The singing performances of the actors and the lighting design are the highlights of the show.
