Caravaggio: Exile and Death - review

Place, London

Caravaggio painted haunting images of perfection, light, and lived a notorious life of excess: visual and dramatic, the world of this artist of the 17th century should be an interesting vehicle for dance . However, the qualities of perfection and too expensive to recreate on stage, and Darshan Singh Bhuller new small-scale work, which depicts the life and art of the painter, is one that could benefit a lot more money and time in the studio.

Bhuller working hard with limited resources. Telling a story invented by the painter's relationship with two of his models, designed to evoke the unbridled energy and left Rome of Caravaggio, with video images of ecclesiastical cloisters, dance halls and rivers where dark bodies of people killed could drown, with small groups of dancers cavort revelers transform the street to the bow and hooded priests. In the center is Lee Clayden in the title role, a tall, pale, bearded bull of a man whose hands and large exposures to seduce his models with a beguiling mix of brutality and lust. Two great scenes to capture the quality of his character: the one where the artist puts the pieces slowly in the mouth of the male model, to silence and control him. One who seduces his female model with a beautiful dress and pearls

• However, none of this is more than enough to fill the stage or make the story resonate. The excess of the dance lacks charisma, a lot of holes in the choreography in the remaining filling. And fusion of the ambitious work of time and not always convincing contemporary resonances: a portrait of a Cardinal digital animation (possibly patron of Caravaggio, Del Monte) screaming like a pope by Francis Bacon is powerful, but not entirely located in

This is a wonderful theme that has found Bhuller, but it must be staged and imagination to a much larger scale.

Rating: 2/5

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