“Carmen”
Synetic Theater Company
Family Theater, The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
June 1, 2008
by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson
A world in which everyone is the same soon becomes boring. That was not the world of Carmen, the passionate gypsy of Prosper Merimee’s 1845 novella or Bizet, Meilhac and Halevy’s 1875 opera or numerous ballets. Carmen got her way because others were not like her. Only when her lover Jose is at last driven to violence like hers, is she thwarted. In the world of Synetic Theater’s “Carmen” everyone is violent from beginning to end. Carmen, of course, fights the other girls at the cigarette factory. Jose and his military colleagues exhibit regimented violence. Carmen’s underworld cronies are violent when they carouse and conspire.
At first that steeps the production into a sizzling cauldron. Actions are sudden and forceful. When bodies burst into dance, it is with an intense dynamic. Words are emblematic, like in the recitative of opera. Irina Tsikurishvili, as Carmen, has a captivating face - very Hedy Lamarr. The principal men – Ben Cunis’ Jose, Philip Fletcher’s Matador Lucas, Scott Brown’s Lieutenant – sport sleek bodies. Encounters are brutal for the most part and even the lovers’ consummation is a display of strength.
As in previous Synetic productions, Paata Tsikurishvili’s direction and Irina Tsikurishvili’s choreography merge seamlessly. The constant violence, though, and 90 continuous minutes of high energy, wear the audience, not the performers, down. There are actually three death scenes at the end, all done as bullfights –- the Matador kills his bull (Vato Tsikurishvili), Jose kills the Matador because Carmen now prefers him and then he kills Carmen. So much death kills the climax. The one stillpoint on stage was the violinist –- a sort of fate figure. He was Konstantine Lortkipanidze, who also composed the non-Bizet-based score.