May 7th, 2017
DECLINING SOLO
Two Destination Language
As the audience settle, a lady in a blue dress unfurls long, white sheets of paper which hang from the ceiling. We catch glimpses of a tall creature trotting noiselessly to and fro between the paper strips to the strains of Eastern European folk music. The woman places some red peppers into a pot to cook as she addresses us for the first time. Her unusual jokes are met with peals of laughter, they remind me of word salad, the non sequiturs that you sometimes hear when talking to people living with dementia.
The performers, Alister Lownie and Katherina Radeva, have worked together for many years and this shows in the way they expertly guide us through the complex, tender work they have created. Declining Solo uses all the senses to draw us in: home movies are projected onto the paper set, an especially composed score draws on the nostalgic sounds of Bulgarian folk music, the two performers use movement, text and even smell to conjure up a sense of Katherina’s past in Bulgaria and a father she can no longer reach. For people in this audience the same sort of memories might be triggered by the cries of gulls and the smell of vinegar on hot chips.
The paper set is cleverly torn and folded to become Katherina’s childhood home, her father’s garage, a nightclub and a folk festival, shifting and changing like the memories it embodies. The pace picks up as the two figures become locked in a dance ‘battle’ of old against new. Finally the set collapses and Katherina is left trying to hold on to memories which are literally slipping through her fingers. The music of the past is drowned out by the electronic beats of a gaudy, new capitalism society.
But where is Katherina’s father? Like the tall folkloric figure which haunts the piece, it seems he would not bend as the country around him left communism and the ‘old ways’ behind. At one time this steadfastness would have been seen as a sign of strength but people need a new sort of resilience now, a flexibility which allows them to keep up with the frenetic rate of change in our high speed world. Adaptability is what allows a society to survive; here in Folkestone, just like in Bulgaria, we need to work together to ensure that our community celebrates the past but is not stuck in it, that we are able to move with the times towards a more positive future, together. (AB)
DECLINING SOLO Two Destination Language Quarterhouse, Folkestone, Kent, April 29th 2017. Wheelchair Access, Level Access, Hearing Loop. www.quarterhouse.co.uk
For more information about Two Language Destination go to:
www.twodestinationlanguage.com
FURTHER READING:
Information on associations between smell and home:
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/08/why-cant-you-smell-your-own-home.html
Research on social resilience:
http://www.humansandnature.org/the-dynamics-of-social-resilience
Discover British folk tradition here:
English Folk Dance and Song Society
Folk rituals in the UK
Sidmouth Folk Week
Images of British folk costumes