Ghost of a flea: Cut you up

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April 05, 2007

Cut you up

Tim Burton is an unusual artist in that his work rarely asks anyone to wonder what it is about. Exquisitely presented, yes, but with an antiseptic emptiness that is both sinister and devoid of affect.* Gothic window dressing as cinema. Edward Scissorhands is perhaps the most representative of the effect. Here he presents an amplified suburbia with an amplified black clothes kid - I should be able to relate - but nothing to hold on to by way of a moral lesson or existential insight; an Aesop's fable without the Aesop.

It is precisely this enigma which presents other artists with such a tempting challenge. British choreographer Matthew Bourne has seen into the heart of this southern California Frankenstein.

“It was, I believe, Tim’s way of expressing how he felt as a teenager—unable to touch or connect with people, awkward and isolated. I think this expresses the way many teenagers feel, and, therefore, they identify with his struggle for acceptance.”

Bourne adds that Kim, the girl with whom Edward falls in love, “is also comforting for many young people. She learns to look beyond Edward’s strange appearance to the gentle and loving soul within. It gives all the world’s outsiders hope!”

Winona Ryder was the hope of all hopes... so give Tim Burton credit for that important insight. Which brings me to a Ryderless - and indeed Deppless - take on the same material. Last night's Toronto opening of Bourne's extravaganza more than met my expectations. Is perkigoth cinema for everyone? No. Is, for that matter, modern dance? No again. But Toronto showed it had more than enough devotees of the two to fill a three-thousand seat venue. My only advice to the production: A wordless spectacle so dependent on sound needs to get the balance right. Crank up your multiband equalizer and power down the 300-800 kHz range and the whole will not sound so boxy. That and make certain to have enough programs on hand for the door. My media kit was fine but I noticed paying customers were going short; perhaps a sign of an ever too slightly successful marketing campaign (we should all have such problems).

Finally, a local spectacle in the Orchestra seats...

Two Orchestra tickets: $196 plus tax.**
Stompity Stomp Stomp Boots: $250 dollars at Hell's Belles.
The Flea meets Raymi the Minx: Priceless.

* With the exception of Nightmare Before Christmas, which has a plot.
** Unless you find the special ticket offer on-line.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 5, 2007 07:14 AM

Comments

Stompity stomp boots are the Absinthe of footwear.

Posted by: agent bedhead at April 5, 2007 11:44 AM

They made very popular footwear. I think the nine-hook/eyelet latex gauntlet/bracers also impressed.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at April 5, 2007 07:41 PM