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These Stones Sing of Life
by Michael Bettencourt
Scythian Stones reviewed April 18, 2010
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| Ainura Kachkinbek kyzy and Tonia Matvienko |
| Photo Credit:Margaret Morton |
| Scythian Stones, created and produced by Yara Arts Group (a resident company of La MaMa), folds songs and memoirs from Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan into the ancient Sumerian epic of Inanna's descent into the underworld to tell about the journey of two women leaving home to travel into the wider world. Directors Virlana Tkacz and Watoku Ueno also add in traditional music by Nurbek Serkebaev and Julian Kytasty, modern music from The Debutante Hour (Susan Hwang and Maria Sonevytsky as the darkly quirky guardians of the underworld), movement by Katja Kolcio, and text in three languages to create a strange, enchanting, redolent hour of theater.
While there is a narrative thread here (and "thread" is an important symbol in Stones, revealed in spindles, unspooling balls of yarn, poetry about the DNA helix), it doesn't necessarily drive the production, in part because the story is told through lyrics and poetry in two languages a monolingual English-speaker will have no luck deciphering. (No sur- or subtitles are offered, though Cecilia Arana, as Moon, does offer the occasional translation, just enough to keep the English speakers on track.)
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| Susan Hwang, Ainura Kachkinbek kyzy and Maria Sonevytsky |
| Photo Credit:Margaret Morton |
| Instead the dramatic impact of the work comes through the sub-cognitive power of the voices of the mothers and daughters (Nina Matvienko, Kenzhegul Satybaldieva, Ainura Kachkynbek kyzy, and Tonia Matvienko) singing melodies our pop-inflected ears have never heard -- haunting, minor-key, odd-rhythmed -- underscored by Kyrgyz instruments and the crystalline beauty of the Ukrainian bandura and staged on a serpentine raised platform with simple clean movements. Add in the antics of The Debutante Hour (not only presenting their strong voices but also doing that while playing drums, guitar, and accordion), and the hour-long performance builds what good theater should always build: an alternate world that allows us to re-learn and reflect upon the great questions at the core of our being human.
The title refers to stone figures scattered throughout southern Russia, Ukraine, southern Siberia, Central Asia, and Mongolia. Over three thousand years old, these statues are thought to be burial monuments, but given the distance between the cultures that produced them and ours, they function more like ghosts, hints of something once tied to us but now bearing clues only if we stop long enough to notice and read them. They make an apt title for this delicate, evocative work by Virlana Tkacz and Yara Arts Group, which hints at the great stories that still inhabit us if only we let ourselves slip into the strangeness of our past in order to more clearly see whatever future lies before us.
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La MaMa (First Floor Theater)
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Category: Cabaret
Written by: Virlana Tkacz
Directed by: Virlana Tkacz
Produced by: La MaMa E.T.C.
Opened: April 16, 2010
Closed: May 2, 2010
Running Time: 1 hour
Theater: La MaMa (First Floor Theater)
Address: 74A E. 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $18.00
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Creative Team
Created by: Virlana Tkacz, Yara Arts Group, and the performers
Directed by: Virlana Tkacz, Watoku Ueno
Set design by: Watoku Ueno
Lighting design by: Watoku Ueno
Costume design by: Watoku Ueno, Keiko Obremki
Music by: Nurbek Serkebaev, Julian Kytasty
Movement by: Katja Kolcio
Cast
Nina Matvienko as Mother
Kenzhegul Satybaldieva as Mother
Ainura Kachkynbek kyzy as Daughter
Tonia Matvienko as Daughter
Cecilia Arana as Moon
Susan Hwang as Denizen of the Great Below
Maria Sonevytsky as Denizen of the Great Below
Nurbek Serkebaev as Kyrgyz Musician
Julian Kytasty as Ukrainian Musician
Crew
Assistant director/stage manager: Yorie Akiba
Musical assistance: Eleanor Lipat-Chesler
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