SONGS OF THE BULBUL

The evening opened with a narration, the story of the bulbul, or nightingale as we know it. A darkly moving myth that stirred, as it ended, vocal distress from some members of the audience. The stage was dark, a crescent of candles illuminated by one lit, flickering alone, and a streak of what we later saw were petals, a motif the recurred throughout the work which, at just over 60 minutes, appropriately flew by.

Out of the gloom emerged dancer Aakash Odedra, dressed in flowing white, our tragic bulbul, emerging from the gauzy white costume cocoon like before taking tentative flight. But how this man could fly, twisting and whirling, skirts flying, arms flailing, hands flicking and twisting and turning. Fluttering between shafts and pools of soft light, red petals falling around him. It was beautiful but it was also a feat of extraordinary energy, dizzyingly impressive.

What followed expressed in dance the myth we had been told at the start, a cruel story brilliantly told, the song of the nightingale whilst growing in beauty becoming darker and more tragic with every step, every gesture.

Akashi Odesa is a phenomenal performer, his physical presence and energy totally captivating. So too is Rushil Ranjan’s beautiful score, a seamless merging of eastern and western forms performed by associate producers Manchester Camerata, and lifted high by the soaringly beautiful vocals of Sarthak Kanyani and Abi Sampa and many other creative forces who have worked on and added to the whole.

Emanuele Salamanca’s simple design, perfect in that simplicity, is beautifully lit by Fabiana Piccioli and Kanika Thakur’s costume design, almost totally white with just a flash of red, is brilliant, taking flight in its own right.

This rather wonderful work, the real art of creative collaboration, will stay with me for some time and already I am searching to see if I can find a recording of that beautiful score.

Andrew Kay

16 May

Brighton corn Exchange

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