Review: Guest Reviewer Kym Vaitiekus Shares His Thoughts On FORGET ME NOT

Wednesday January 15th, 7 pm Carriageworks Track 8.

BWW REVIEW: Guest Reviewer Kym Vaitiekus Shares His Thoughts On FORGET ME NOT

Ronnie Burkett, the acclaimed Canadian puppet master brings his impassioned work FORGET ME NOT to the Sydney Festival 2020.

The audience enters a welcoming space scattered with an eclectic array of chairs all facing the centre.
SHE appears and starts us on a journey that explores love, poetry and the yearning for connection.

We follow the life of the Ringmaster, his ruthless managing of a circus life. His tyrannical leadership encounters a change when he falls in love and has to face an even fiercer foe.

SHE, looking for love, shares stories of the many love letters and who they speak of. Never having her own love letter answered.

Burkett invites the audience to engage in the night with their own puppet. We become the 'others' to watch, interact and be part of the event.

We are the audience to the Ringmaster's Punch and and Judy style theatrics. We attend the funeral of a tortured soul. We witness the trials of many love stories as SHE sacrifices her gifts for others to enjoy. This set in a world where the written word is forbidden and defiance is executed through love, written in cursive.

Burkett's energy is electric. His passion and exuberance fill the stage, encapsulating one into his visceral world.
Rather than hide the puppet master from view, Burkett uses his performance skills to include his presence in a way that enhances the event.
We see him but to his credit we are focused on the marionettes and their stories. The puppets are small and at times I wanted to be closer ( the audience is invited to move around the space) but Burkett's skill is so adept that even just a glove or a puppet head on the end of a finger is still mesmerizing to watch.

The narrative is not linear, the evening is presented like a poem that is about the art of poetry. Poetry that focuses on the trials and tribulations of love lost and found.

I was surprised that some of the humour was sexual innuendo set in what feels like 'classical' surroundings but this inclusion is a refreshing reveal on the topic at hand.

Burkett's performance felt like it was presented for the first time and from the heart. Not like an improvisation but a story his soul knows so well. The marriage of his passion, with the stories, with the themes, and with the audience encased in a performance event, is a joy to be part of.

https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/forget-me-not

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