Review: WILD HUNT LIVE: THE UNTOLD STORY at Avatar
What do a video game, slavic music and an unforgettable live experience have in common? The answer is: The Witc, I mean Wild Hunt Live (wink, wink).
So let’s go. On stage: the band behind the music of the third installment of the famous video game, a handful of acrobats, dancers, a healthy sense of humor, and - just to make absolutely sure you know where you are - a sprinkle of Adam Mickiewicz (as if the slavic mythology wasn't enough of a hint).
Although the show is in Polish, the language it actually speaks has no dictionary. On one hand: music. On the other: stage movement. A duo that bypasses your mind entirely and goes straight for the heart and no decoding is required. You don't watch this show. You absorb it, like mist rising from a forest you didn't know you were already standing in. Percival Schuttenbach don’t just perform the music. They summon it. With their instruments, voices, and slightly terrifying commitment to the atmosphere, they pull you deep into a universe of slavic mythology where good isn't always obvious and evil can be dangerously beautiful. Like a wolf in a very elegant coat or a beautiful creature that makes you disappear under the water.
The journey itself is the point, and, oh well, what a journey it is. Dancers and acrobats add another layer to the story, and suddenly words become unnecessary. Everything is in the movement (don’t try it at home, kids!), and you love it in and out! What they do with their bodies goes beyond limits and at some point you just give up on wondering how they do it.
Several stories weave together into one world of magic, power, and human stubbornness. Crazy dances (you go girls!), adventurers (Mateusz Przybysławski, Mariusz Nguyen - Ocelot Foundation scholar and Mariusz Bochniarz), last but not least: a lively, warm-hearted tavern owner (Marcin Dawiec) inviting you to a medieval party and spinning tales like someone who has been waiting all winter to tell them. There is love, there is braveness, there is a battle. I haven't played the video game, and it didn't matter for even a second. Heard for the very first time, the music is powerful and overwhelming (makes you want to dance), and I can only imagine what it does to someone who has played the game - now hearing and seeing that universe come alive on stage.
Kamil J. Przyboś took old slavic stories, handed them to a band that sounds like it was somehow summoned rather than formed, and built a show that is vibrant, alive, and impossible to shake off. Like a spell. A very good one.
Photo: Filip Wierzbicki
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