Theatre review: An air of giddiness for Alter by Kamchàtka at Cork Midsummer Festival

Topics as displacement and loss touched upon during captivating experience

There was an air of giddiness on board the bus for Alter by Kamchàtka

★★★★☆

Coach tours were a welcome relief from the classroom for most Irish people in their schooldays. So there was inevitably an air of giddiness on board the bus arranged for those attending the Barcelona-based theatre company Kamchàtka‘s outdoor performance of Alter at Cork Midsummer Festival. The excitement was heightened by the lateness of the hour; we departed from Lapps Quay at 10pm.

Where were we bound? East Cork, apparently. The last signpost read Watergrasshill, and then we were winding down boreens into a forest. The deeper we went, the more menacing it appeared. By the time we disembarked, we could have been any place.

We were met by a lone woman with a suitcase. Not a thing was said as she supplied us with lamps before leading us deeper again into the woods. After some time, we came upon a man buried up to his chest in the earth (much like Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days), watching a black-and-white film projected onto the lid of his suitcase. We helped him out, though he seemed loath to escape his predicament.

Further on again, we laid sacks on the ground, and watched as a hoard of hot, salted potatoes was dug out of the earth and passed around to be eaten. A beverage was soon passed around as well, while tunes were played on a wind-up music box, and films were projected on a blanket. As long as that interlude lasted, it almost felt as if we’d bonded, albeit wordlessly.

Soon we were on the move again. Arriving at a clearing, we were joined by other individuals with suitcases, with their own groups of attendees. Lights were strung above us, music played, and only a curmudgeon with beat deafness would not have joined in with the throng that danced - or stomped - about the clearing.

When it ended, films were again projected onto screens, and the silent figures – unnamed and seemingly unknowable – stole away with their suitcases into the darkness among the trees.

Who were they? Migrants? Or ghosts?

The Kamchàtka company‘s achievement was to leave us pondering such universal - and timeless - topics as displacement and loss, even as we picked our own way back to the comfort of the buses.

• Further information: corkmidsummer.com