Showing @ Hill Street Theatre, 11 – 29 Aug @ 4:00pm
Mime artist Marcel Marceau once mused: to communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man. There’s a lot to be said for silence, and more that could criticise an over-reliance on verbatim (British theatre does this well.) Le Voyageur Debout’s Edinburgh festival debut uses a collaboration of words, images, gesture and music to tell the story of Felix’s unrequited love for Filomena.
Just Good Friends is surely a hot ticket of the festival. It’s exquisitely executed clowning; each gesture or movement is so precise it appears effortless. Le Voyageur Debout formed in 1996 and are based in Lyon, they tour and produce year-round. Their Chaplinesque clown acting delicately captures the nuances of the character: physically and emotionally – it’s hard not to be engrossed by them. Mime can be portrayed as an inaccessible medium because people fear they won’t understand it or it’ll be too far out of their comfort zone. If you think about it, how often have you used your hands to communicate with rather than words? We do it more often that we might think. Le Voyageur Debout have made art with it. Just good theatre.
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