REVIEW: A Night of Gogol at a Block of Flats in London Fields
A house party booming Latin music becomes the broken fourth wall to the audience watching a play placed onto a Hackney skyline. It’s an absurd work and nothing but an absurd setting would be fitting. Based upon Nikolai Gogol’s short story, The Nose, written in the early 19th century and, making a protagonist of an official’s nose, who losing his master’s face, enjoys the autonomy of being its own entity. Basset Theatre, a brand-new collective with a nose for the bizarre, bring together sculptors, performance artists and chefs to provide a truly inventive, original but haphazard, theatrical event which certainly behaves by its own rules. Though the whole didn’t always feel complete, the attempt was admirable.
It's in the promenade, meaning in this case we walk up through a block of flats whilst the inhabitants stare at us with a mixture of acceptance and suspicion. A rather lovely rendition of Eastern European music greets us at the entrance, composed by a man tunefully blowing on a recorder and a woman, in period dress, singing with a passionate, calm and excellent cadence. Before you know it, when the musical motif repeats for a second time on a balcony, you’re surrounded by party goers and even these few drinkers our stunned. Your reviewer, though wondering what the heck might be going on, enjoys himself with a glass of red wine, people watching at first before deciding to pluck up the courage and speak to the performers who are loitering about.
Gogol himself, a Russian novelist, short-story writer and playwright originally from Ukraine had a penchant for all things weird and wonderful, especially for anything grotesque. This play, albeit very loosely, tells Gogol’s story of Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov, whose nose eventually finds itself, herself or himself (I do wonder what the pronouns for a nose would be ) at a greater rank than the face it belongs to. It’s a wacky satire of Russian society and the Table of Ranks. This renditions defiance for the absurd, though valuable made the practical retelling rather difficult to follow. Frankly, the performance played second fiddle to the absurdity in this case.
That being said, there was some great shadow puppetry by Drew Colby and there were no complaints here about the quality of the food. A three-course meal, in fact, rarely goes down badly and much can be made of the borscht, as main course. Compliments to the chef!
Ultimately, I think the artists need to refocus on the story. After all, theatre relies upon narrative, perspective and repetition. These things sit rather difficultly with the random splendour of the design and work. This takes nothing away from the experience, the desire to reinvent and I hope this is just the beginning for a group which could take our breath, or nose, or what you will away, at the right moments.
P.S: Thank you, to the kind partygoer, who did a round of crisps for the whole audience. It was much needed with the wine on an empty stomach.
Produced by Bassett Theatre
