Inspired by Italian writer Italo Calvino’s novel of the same name, Invisible Cities is about the relationship between hot blooded Kublai Khan, head of the Khan dynasty’s vast empire, and explorer/prisoner Marco Polo as he transcends language barrier, time and space itself to describe to him the state of his vast empire with the promise of release for his Father, Uncle and himself. As part of the Brisbane Festival this performance is a must see as the production surely does transcend theatre with one of the most ambitious productions ever presented by the festival combining choreography, music, bewildering architectural design, theatre and even projection mapping to produce alternative worlds and reimagining what is conceivable for a live performance.
As I drove out to Yeerongpilly where the show is staged and saw the factory it was to be held in I was struck with the realization of how big of a production this performance is going to be. The warehouse was enormous. The stage is centred in the middle of the factory in a plus sign + shape with four sections for seating surrounding it. Each seating area was curtained off with projections of 13th century maps of the Khan dynasty’s expansive empire, and quotes from the book Invisible Cities and passages about Marco Polo.
As projected fire consumed the curtains they drew back to reveal the striking stage as the performance commenced. Sitting on a high throne in silk garb is Kublai Khan played by Danny Sapani. Sapani has some impressive acting credits such as Black Panther and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. His voice is an attractive blend of English and African, which is one of my favourite accents (think Idris Elba) and he can shift from a roaring power to something more emotionally frail effortlessly.
Chased to the stage by a swarm of mercenaries we are introduced to Marco Polo, energetically played by Matthew Leonhart. Leonhart’s performance reminded me a little of the cartoon Aladdin movie in the way he ran about the stage’s set with vitality, however I did find his thick American accent a touch imposing. The story is fairly straightforward, Khan has Polo’s father and uncle imprisoned and questioning his legacy forces Polo off to different cities to report back. The book leaves a lot of room for interpretation as it mostly describes 55 different cities with colourful imagery, this production fills in a lot of gaps and adds amazing choreography and lighting to those descriptions that are lifted from the pages.
Directed by Leo Warner the first half is thrilling and peppered with psychedelic and dreamlike sequences whilst Khan is reminiscing about his favourite wife Chabi she appears at the side of the stage in shimmering red garb almost floating as a ghostly figure and later whilst being bellowed at by Polo’s descriptions of love imagines a younger version of himself meeting his wife for the first time is impressively emotional. When Polo describes the burial grounds in one city, terrifying ghosts in long stretchy cloth sleek across the stage with multiple dancers under the material trying to escape.
It has a haunting and powerful effect, even more impressive though was when I watched them creep back into the hole where they came from I started to understand the scope of the set, how high off the ground was this set for there to be space for them to hide and what other tricks did the performance have up its sleeve? Time would tell. Sound designer Gareth Fry plays with quite a minimalistic soundtrack that works perfectly with the performance. Many of the scenes are heightened in drama by the Hans Zimmer inspired dark bellows or eerie string work reminiscent of the Inception soundtrack, which invokes effortless emotion.
The second half of the show is strikingly shorter than the first and perhaps because of this it loses some of its energy, however it opening set is the most grandiose design change of all as the entire middle of the set is opened up into a canal with two bridges at each end as Polo, and Khan are paddled down it. The second half envelopes more current imagery as it starts to meld current forms of travel such as choreographed routines about chaotic airports into the story. The show also takes digs at mass consumerism in one of the final performances as shopping bags and wrapping paper are anarchically torn and thrown into the air as the sequences climax and whilst I felt deterred from the original material, a bit further than I liked, the routines were just as impressive as others and it rounded up the finale sneaking us into modern time effectively as the performance came to a close.
Everyone involved in this production has outdone themselves from the large dance ensemble, the lead actors to the lighting and especially the set design, which should be up for an award. I highly recommend any fan of theatre and art to see this show before it is over because it may be some time before you get to see something on a scale as impressive as this.
24 - 28 Sept
880 Fairfield Rd, Yeerongpilly
Thomas Harrison