Meeting Karpovsky is a collaboratively created
play designed as a vehicle for the talents of one of NZ's best theatre actresses,
Helen Moulder, and the
emminence grise of the Royal NZ
Ballet,
Sir Jon Trimmer who's been the
principal dancer there for 40+ years and, unsurprisingly, is now a little past his prime, and not up to lead roles. It won the Best New Play
award in New Zealand in 2002, and Moulder won the award for best actress for her performance in it the following year.
The story concerns a somewhat
fey late middle-aged woman, Sylvia, who loves the ballet - as a
spectator. We find her in a room full of boxes putting up a
poster. There are already three others on the wall, and as she places the latest, it becomes clear, she's slightly dotty and very lonely, as she looks at the posters them she talks to them, interspersing her general speech with invented
limericks. The posters all feature one
dancer - Karpovsky - and
symbolise elements of the story that is about to unfold. They are:
Herr Drosselmeyer - the magician from
The Nutcracker
Widow Simone - the mother from
La Fille Mal Gardee
Albrecht and Giselle - obviously from
Giselle
The new poster is
Petrushka - the puppet who learns how to feel.
As Sylvia flits about, she talks about how Karpovsky has performed, and opens boxes, pulling out things from within them and describing their history, their
symbolism - a fan, the
willow pattern ... We learn she's divorced, that her husband, Charles was a dealer in
antique china, and that she smashed a lot of it when he left her for another woman, deceiving her, as Albrecht deceived Giselle. We discover, too, that the contents of the boxes belong to her daughter, Anna, who is working as a
volunteer in China, and has
eschewed worldly possessions - she's asked Sylvia to give her stuff away. Sylvia lifts a sealed envelope, in passing, looks at it and puts it down,
hastily.
As she does so, a figure appears from the shadows, a man with a stick - Karpovsky himself. We know he can't be entirely real, but whether he's a
figment of her imagination or some kind of
ghost or
spirit is never clear.
He appears in the room, scaring her at first then sending her into a
tizzy of busy speech. Silently (he only speaks one word in the entire play) he indicates that she should dance with him. She protests that she can't, but he teaches her a few
rudimentary steps which she performs clumsily. She's left
dizzy and laughing and he disappears.
He appears over a series of visits teaching Sylvia more dance steps and guiding the unfolding of the plot as he guides her dancing. He's the Herr Drosselmeyer
figure, part father, part magician, and the driving force behind her
spiritual journey towards facing whatever is contained in that sealed
envelope. As she travels it, uncovering more and more of the items hidden inside the boxes, we learn that she relates Widow Simone's relationship with her daughter, Lise, to her own with her daughter Anna. Like the
widow, she wants her daughter to be something she isn't, and has been forced to accept that she cannot control Anna's path - but she can't let go and feels she's failed to look after her properly.
Finally, we see her as Petrushka - a
puppet controled by, and railling at, a cold and
cruel creator, as her
brittle mask breaks down and we see her forced to
confront the pain that's necessitated Karpovsky's appearance.
Both performances are excellent - Moulder's was perhaps a little too
histrionic for the small
theatre I saw it in, but would have been perfect in a larger
venue and Trimmer was just
brilliant. Every movement was
precise,
graceful,
elegant, and he has incredible
presence. The ballet references are
seamless and made understandable whether or not you are familiar with the dance, and the music is
familiar and wonderful.
I really,
really enjoyed this, in case you didn't guess.