Review: LOVE TO DEATH at Grand Théâtre

Last Friday, we attended the premiere of Lemi Ponifasio’s Love to Death, the anticipated third instalment of the Red Bridge Project. The show seeks to break our standard understanding of theatre, with a healthy and creative symbiosis between traditional dramatic elements and bits and pieces of the real world. Motivated by the shooting of a young Chilean student and farmer, it consists on a reflection of Chile’s struggle for its own soul, and its will to find a brighter future.

The gold: The dance and singing. Contemporary flamenco dancer Natalia García-Huidobro gave us a wonderful display of how truly intense and expressive this style can be. Performing to the background sound of street protests, it felt as if the cries of outraged citizens were taking form in one body, raging against the weight of countless societal failures. On the other hand, Elisa Avendaño Curaqueo’s song felt like the beautiful and melodic wail of a hurting nation. If one was the episodic angst of the people, the second was the historical and almost matriarchal lament of a collective soul crying for the pain of its children.

The silver: The shock value. The element of surprise was very well explored in this play, with loud sounds and visual elements shocking the audience when least expected. This was an all too vivid reminder of how suddenly something can happen when the wheel of fortune and the hand of Man join forces to bring forth tragedy.

The bronze:  The opening. In the almost 80 plays covered so far by Broadway World in Luxembourg, never had the talk with the director been included in the show, before the start of the performance. It felt refreshing to see a full audience learning about the creation process and the experiences that led to the play at hand. Given how linked this project was to Luxembourg and how many future artists were in the audience, this was no doubt a great choice.

As usual, our thanks to the Grand Théâtre and everyone involved.

To reach out to the writer: nuno.de.sousa.lopes@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Alex Waghorn

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