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NUCLEAR FAMILY Nexus Arts Until 08 Mar 2011
Review by Brian Godfrey
Desiree Gezentsvey’s short play deals with migrating and how it breaks up families, can form new onesand, ironically, bring those segregated parties closer together in the wake of a tragedy.
The tragedy in question is the Chernobyl disaster and the immigrants a family of Russian Jews leavingtheir loved ones behind in the land of the long black hammer and sickle and heading for that of the longwhite cloud - New Zealand.
This is no depressing rollercoaster of a theatrical journey, but rather a gentle, humorous and slightlyemotional trip made even more pleasurable by simple, clear direction from Dushyant Kumar and a tourde-force performance from actor Yael Gezentsvey.
Ms Gezentsvey, wearing all-black with hair pulled tight, plays all the characters (male and female) and isa veritable United Nations of accents - Russian Jewish, Spanish, Italian and Kiwi. There is never anydoubt as to what gender or nationality she is at any given time, thanks to her excellent mime anddramatic skills.
It is evident that here is a well trained actor, when Gezentsvey can turn her back to an audience andspeak to a wall or go behind a curtain to talk and still be heard clearly without the aid of a microphone(somewhat rare these days).
“Nuclear Family” is a very welcomed migrant to the shores of the Fringe; but hurry as it is here on afairly short visa.
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5) |
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