Review: PROMISE LAND at Transatlantic Love Affair At The Guthrie Theater

PROMISE LAND is an original work, described as a story of home, and as a re-telling of the Hansel and Gretel tale as an immigrant journey. Devised by the Transatlantic Love Affair, a physical theater ensemble founded in the Twin Cities in 2010, it has been given a supportive home by the powerful Guthrie Theater, in their 9th floor black box experimental space where all tickets are just $9.

The nine members of the cast are all on stage throughout the 80 minute, intermissionless performance. It's a core belief of this group that the human body is the ultimate theatrical instrument, and so the dominant methodology throughout is ensemble movement, in real time and slow motion, augmented by occasional mime to indicate objects like bread and doors. Several members of the company, including Artistic Director Isabel Norton and Artistic Associate Diogo Lopes, trained in the Lecoq-based system at the London International School of the Performing Arts(LISPA). They have the skills and taste to make a full performance based on physical storytelling clear and moving. It never feels gimmicky.

The performance unrolls in open space, with careful use of light, sound, and occasional dialogue to help bolster the narrative. Of these, the music is the most notable. Cellist and composer Emily Dantuma sits to the side and uses looping and amplification to provide a variety of sound effects, and the company sings, beautifully, using folk songs in a variety of languages (Croatian, Yiddish, and Czech), to support the universal nature of the story. (That the company includes people of various ethnicities and identities supports this, too.)

In this telling, the sibling children are sent to America by their loving parents from an unnamed land where food and opportunity are both scarce. The waving gesture of farewell from the company transforms into the waves of the ocean, on which the two create the sense of a ship with their hands. We see them cope with cramped and noxious quarters in steerage; we witness with them the inequality on board when they sneak upstairs to the kitchen and main dining room. Once arrived in the US, they make their way to a boarding house, property of a factory owner, who seems to be benevolent.

Here, the company has created a twist on the classic plot, in a way that highlights gender and reminds us that appearances can be deceiving. The 'witch' of the original Hansel and Gretel story would seem to be the woman in charge of the boarding house-but she's not the one who ends up in the oven. She is played with terrific specificity and bold mannerism choices by one of the ensemble members, unnamed in the program, as are the other 'lead' players, each of whom also folds back into the group to help create environments as needed.

Throughout, the company displays great coordination of breath and gaze to help us see what they create with their bodies: the immigrant ship, the checkpoint lines upon debarking, a trolley, dining spaces, bedrooms, stairs, the noisy and dangerous factory, and even a kite, flying. With such strong visual story-telling and minimal reliance on language, this piece could work for audiences with limitEd English. It's recommended for audiences of 13 and older, due to some sexual elements in the story that are not explicit but are necessary, credible, and disturbing. Kudos to this company, and to the Guthrie, for providing an affordable venue for new work, and for the various outreach activities, post-show, designed to engage their audiences further. The show runs through February 12.

photo credit: Nick Schroepfer

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