• Advertise
  • Request Review
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy
  • Login

Theatre Bubble

The UK Theatre Network

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Opinions
  • Interviews
  • Guides
  • Ed Fringe

d(ARE)/ Here be Lions- Print Room at the Coronet

June 12, 2015 by Verity Healey Leave a Comment

Review of: d(ARE)/ Here be Lions
Price:
£25/17

Reviewed by: Verity Healey
Rating:
4
On June 12, 2015
Last modified:June 12, 2015

Summary:

maddening and compulsive at the same time

More Details

d(ARE)/ Here be Lions, two pieces by The Print Room in association with Theatre of Europe, on the experiences of children with severe and multiple neurological difficulties at the Hopital de la Roche-Guyon, are inextricably linked.

Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 14.05.23

Sandrine Burling. © Marc Brenner

d(ARE) seems to focus on our obsession with spectacle and taking inspiration from the 17th Century invention of rotational therapy, which involved suspending patients on swings for hours on end, in a bid to cure them of their supposed ills.

Here, Sandrine Buring’s version is a more modern variation on that theme. An oversized specimen jar hangs and swings from the ceiling, which Buring enters, naked to the waist. Suspended in it for 25 minutes,  her body and its movements tell little stories in Luc Jenny’s light. Sometimes it seems like she is in formaldehyde, or she is a foetus, or echoes the artwork of Bill Viola, Bosch or Sarah Lucas. But Sandrine Buring, time and time again, crawls like a snail up the jar to the top, only to fall back down again: and an audience’s attention is rapt. And therein lies the point. It is as if Sandrine Buring is part of a human zoo. It is possible to stop thinking about her as a human being, and instead analyse her in terms of light and bone and flesh. It is painful. The question is asked, how can a person communicate with someone who cannot communicate in the ordinary way? How can making them into an object, then be avoided?

Here Be Lions or Hic sunt leones, provides some answers, although it certainly does not give the audience any sign posts as to how to read it: we are in uncharted territories.

In a sensory room filled with fog where the audience sits in deck chairs, so being encouraged to experience a form of synesthesia, Hayley Carmichael’s voice, somewhere in all the mist, describes a children’s hospital, the patients, carers and the artists Sandrine Buring and writer/director, Stéphane Olry themselves, taking inspiration from their residency at the Hopital de la Roche-Guyon. Almost contrapuntally, vocalist Phil Minton describes the feelings the children cannot perhaps put into words. The effect is disjointed, stultifying, yet the narrative, translated from the French by Neil Bartlett, also pushes towards joy. The assumption that there is only one way to experience the world by those without neurological differences, is demystified and shown as arrogant. Touch becomes the most important way to communicate. What we get does not allow us to make narrative sense, rather like the disjointedness in 4.48 Psychosis, Craved or Cleansed. The ontological fracturing is horrifying. Numbing. But it encourages audiences to focus on the present and to quieten their inner internal dialogues.

The two pieces may on the surface seem to suffer from a lack of cohesion. But context is everything. And there’s a sort of religious wonder of it all, a playing on our need for objectifying spectacle on the one hand (as a defence mechanism against something we do not understand), the horror at not being able to communicate on the other (once we see through the spectacle) and joy in the embrace of finding new ways to experience, interact and make sense.  Somehow the experience of watching d(ARE)/ Here be Lions is both maddening and compulsive at the same time. Hayley Carmichael and Phil Minton’s vocals are alternatively muted and then abrasive with frustration and tremulous with feeling. The sense is that these two pieces will never be self contained works of art, but constantly changing and mutating. If anything, I wanted more and not less.

venue: Print Room at the Coronet  boxoffice: 020 3642 6606/ website  dates: until 27th June

cast includes: Sandrine Burling, Hayley Carmichael, Phil Minton

directed by: Stéphane Olry, Corine Miret

written by: Stéphane Olry

translated by: Neil Bartlett

choreography by: Sandrine Burling

lighting and technical design by: Luc Jenny

Verity Healey

Author: Verity Healey

I write about theatre, I write short stories/ poetry www.verityhealey.blogspot.com, I also sometimes make films.

Filed Under: Review Tagged With: d(ARE)/ Here be Lions, la Revue Éclair, Print Room, Theatre of Europe

Join the discussion Cancel reply

Hands Face & Empty Space / Sarah Chew on life drawing and Zoom

On the 17th March, it will be exactly one year since UK theatre came to an overnight standstill. Every day [Read More]

Hands Face & Empty Space / Emily Beecher on being a reluctant producer and unproducer

On the 17th March, it will be exactly one year since UK theatre came to an overnight standstill. Every day [Read More]

Hands Face & Empty Space / Alison Ford on maternity, redundancy and doing what’s right

On the 17th March, it will be exactly one year since UK theatre came to an overnight standstill. Every day [Read More]

Hands Face & Empty Space / Peter Moreton talks about growing the grass roots

On the 17th March, it will be exactly one year since UK theatre came to an overnight standstill. Every day [Read More]

NEWS / Concert opportunity for musical theatre performers

A series of three concerts featuring musical theatre and drama graduates will be streamed from London’s Cadogan Hall in March. [Read More]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Alison Ford on maternity, redundancy and doing what's right
  • Sarah Chew on life drawing and Zoom
  • Emily Beecher on being a reluctant producer and unproducer
  • 10 Tips to Help You Prepare for Your Reality TV Auditions
  • Peter Moreton talks about growing the grass roots
  • Yasmin Paige on Actually
  • Actor's Corner: Keeping Curious with Jamie Baughan
  • The Life at Southwark Playhouse
  • Writing the Perfect Press Release
  • 5 Stage Elements to Consider for a Rousing Theatrical Production
  • Verity Healey

    Verity Healey
    Author

  • June 12th, 2015
  • comment iconNo Comments
  • Facebook27TweetLinkedInEmail

    Newsletter

    Enjoyed what you've read? Get even more great content directly to your inbox - Completely Free

    About Theatre Bubble

    Theatre Bubble is the news, review and blogging site created by Blue Pie Media and run by a dedicated team of outstanding editors and writers: we're always looking for new contributors - to find out more click here.

    Contact Us

    News: news@theatrebubble.com
    Reviews: reviews@theatrebubble.com
    Website: webmaster@theatrebubble.com

    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2021 · Blue Pie Media

    Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

    Email sent!