Ecstasy with the Pomegranate (Ilkholm)

An Ecstasy with the Pomegranate
By the Ilkholm Theater Group
Directed by: Mark Weil
Touring the United States right now!
All the way from Uzbekistan, the Ilkholm theater group brings us their production of Ecstasy with the Pomegranate. Ultimately they bring us a story of culture and the destruction of culture. This is something that has been done over and over again by many theater groups. However, there is something different about Ilkholm and these differences are what make the production completely worth the time and money. Ilkholm theater provides a fresh passion, and life to their theater stories that often hard to come by.
While many theatre groups are adapting old plays or rewriting, simply appropriating stories –and there is something to be said for that –the Ilkholm brings us a story that is completely unfamiliar to us. I fount Ecstasy with the Pomegranate to be not only entertaining, but perhaps more importantly I found it informative. The majority of history created these days is focused on either American or European with some focus into the areas of Africa and Asia. There is virtually nothing coming out of the regions of Russia and its surrounding smaller countries. Loosely based on the story of the artist Aleksandr Nikolaev it provided me with a fresh story from a culture and time period I am largely uninformed about. I do not know much about the culture of the bacha dancers and so watching their culture and learning about its fall became all the more interesting in what should be the human’s constant search for knowledge.
Now, I have seen many an informative production that simply became drudgery and almost painful to watch. However the technical aspects of the Ilkholm theater experience are so beautiful it is hard to look away from them, even to sneak a peak at the ever-present subtitles. Their use of projection, movement, and the acting itself were very important to the ultimate beauty of the show.
After just seeing the Rep’s production of Figaro one could be scared about how projection can go terribly wrong. It can distract from what is going on onstage and can become an immediate sign of trying to hard to get your point across. However Ilkholm does not use it to draw my focus to something and point it out making it a huge billboard for what they are trying to say. Instead they project pictures and paintings on a huge moveable skrim. These very paintings and pictures are the real life work of the artist the piece follows. Thus the projections become more than just projections, they become art that is a part of the art form. Ilkholm does not dumb down what they are trying to say and insult their audience in the process of making their points they continue to be intellectual as they suggest their points. Their work with projection becomes ingenious because it is not overstated it simply adds to the production.
To say that the moment of the company on stage is anything but exquisite would be an understatement. The bacha dancers themselves are amazing in movement, and not just in their dances, their entire attitude as they approach moment on stage provides an amazing theater experience. However what is even more amazing is the contrast between the dancers and the soldiers. While everything the dancers do is fluid, beautiful, and smooth, the soldier’s movements are abrupt, strong, and harsh. This contrast only helps to build the beauty of the moment of the dancers. Once again however this is not overstates it is simply shown to the audience and it is left to the viewer to notice what the artists were expertly doing.
The actors in the production provide a haunting look into the characters lives. I did not feel that I was watching actors portraying the story on stage; I felt that the actors were the story on stage. Each actor seemed so absorbed in the character it was impossible to not view them as one and the same. This was accomplished in a few ways. The story they are sharing is once again unfamiliar so the characters are also unfamiliar. The actors’ portrayal of them is the only reality I know of the story. But perhaps more importantly is that it is really shown that the characters have a dedication to storytelling and to the story they are telling. They appear to be letting the story flow through them at all moments when they walk the stage and they even perform in memory of a fallen comrade, their artistic director. They are emotionally connected to the story they are telling, (like the cast of Red Books was) and that makes the performances even more valid and beautiful.
In many foreign productions the story falls flat on its face when they are brought to the stage in America. Many times I feel that is because the theater companies simply try to force the explanation of their culture. Their productions would be one hundred times better if they realized what Ilkholm theatre has realized. They do not need to explain themselves on stage they only need to share themselves.