For the last few days the Kiez has been all a flutter. Preparations were underway for Argentine director Mariano Pensotti’s performance La Marea (De Gezeiten) performed last night on Wrangel Str.
The police cordoned off the street and various shops and bars were commandeered for the evening. A series of spot lit theatrical tableaux were presented with sound effects and subtitles. A man drank alone on a balcony, his bitter internal monologue spelt out in a projection above as the sounds of a party were heard from the flat behind. A shop window became a bedroom, its sole inhabitant unable to sleep enunciated her worries. Two lovers kissed in front of the supermarket whilst a digital diplay spelt out their hopes and fears for the future. Another assignation failed to materialize outside the church and a couple argued in the record store. A man sat outside a café reading a letter from a soldier in Iraq. These short narrative fragments were beautifully choreographed. The audience, enchanted or bewildered at the sudden transformation of the street, wandered between each scene as it unfolded.
For years in London I used to work nightshifts and , occasionally, walking home through the city at dawn on a warm summer morning I would turn a corner and suddenly I would be in Prague, or Warsaw or in some other city. Sometimes it would be snowing and in the glare of the spotlight I felt as if I had wandered into a dream.
Pensotti developed "La Marea" first for the international festival de Buenos Aires in 2005. A second version was presented in Brussels as part of the Kunsten Festival des Arts in 2006. it ran in Wrangel Strasse between May 10th and Saturday the 12th.