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Kamp - review Kamp - review
(7 months later)
How do you represent the Holocaust? The question has rarely been answered with such audacity as by Dutch theatre company Hotel Modern. Their Auschwitz is an elaborate model which covers the stage, shrunk down to the size of Toytown. It's a shock to see it crafted seemingly as lovingly as a Victorian doll's house, complete with ankle-height gates with the infamous sign Arbeit Macht Frei – which even lights up.How do you represent the Holocaust? The question has rarely been answered with such audacity as by Dutch theatre company Hotel Modern. Their Auschwitz is an elaborate model which covers the stage, shrunk down to the size of Toytown. It's a shock to see it crafted seemingly as lovingly as a Victorian doll's house, complete with ankle-height gates with the infamous sign Arbeit Macht Frei – which even lights up.
Yet this isn't a Chapmans-style Hell, their enormous vitrines full of Nazi toy soldiers committing acts of depravity. Hotel Modern's hell is animated by three performers. They meticulously move around tiny puppets, which they film with minature cameras. The live feed is projected in black and white onto the stage's backdrop – very much in the manner of director Katie Mitchell's work with live actors. Technically, it's astonishing. There are no words, but a loud soundtrack ranging from howling winds to circus music going out of tune.Yet this isn't a Chapmans-style Hell, their enormous vitrines full of Nazi toy soldiers committing acts of depravity. Hotel Modern's hell is animated by three performers. They meticulously move around tiny puppets, which they film with minature cameras. The live feed is projected in black and white onto the stage's backdrop – very much in the manner of director Katie Mitchell's work with live actors. Technically, it's astonishing. There are no words, but a loud soundtrack ranging from howling winds to circus music going out of tune.
The puppets playing the Jews look like tiny versions of the figure in Munch's The Scream, arriving in a train, disgorged at the end of the line, enslaved, then finally stripped and killed. We see hideous vignettes including the hanging of four prisoners, the beating to death of another, the pouring of poison gas into the crowded chamber beneath, and finally a long tracking shot over the bones of the murdered Jews. It could be the audience's projection, but though the puppets' faces are static, they seem to express bewilderment when they arrive at the camp and horror when they are murdered.The puppets playing the Jews look like tiny versions of the figure in Munch's The Scream, arriving in a train, disgorged at the end of the line, enslaved, then finally stripped and killed. We see hideous vignettes including the hanging of four prisoners, the beating to death of another, the pouring of poison gas into the crowded chamber beneath, and finally a long tracking shot over the bones of the murdered Jews. It could be the audience's projection, but though the puppets' faces are static, they seem to express bewilderment when they arrive at the camp and horror when they are murdered.
Hotel Modern have performed Kamp for five years. Afterwards, the performers stay behind afterwards to take questions one-to-one and allow the audience to get a closer look. The performers are clearly still charged with the emotion of what they're presenting, but in Adelaide some audience members seem less moved, eagerly snapping images of the minature gas chambers on their iphones to upload to their Facebook pages.Hotel Modern have performed Kamp for five years. Afterwards, the performers stay behind afterwards to take questions one-to-one and allow the audience to get a closer look. The performers are clearly still charged with the emotion of what they're presenting, but in Adelaide some audience members seem less moved, eagerly snapping images of the minature gas chambers on their iphones to upload to their Facebook pages.
So does it work? Clearly not for everyone, and watching the play, I worried that miniturising Auschwitz also minimised its horrors. Art Spiegelman's Maus proved that a graphic novel could do justice to the Auschwitz, but can a puppet show?So does it work? Clearly not for everyone, and watching the play, I worried that miniturising Auschwitz also minimised its horrors. Art Spiegelman's Maus proved that a graphic novel could do justice to the Auschwitz, but can a puppet show?
Yet the point of Kamp ultimately has to be that it makes us see Auschwitz through Nazi eyes – pretty, innocuous and full of puppets, to be set to work, stripped naked and ultimately discarded. It demands that the audience works to give the puppets back their humanity – and it's hard. We have to make a leap of empathy and imagination, unaided by gore, individual tales of heroism or tearjerking sentiment. It takes time and concentration, but Kamp makes its point with subtlety and, ultimately, great power.Yet the point of Kamp ultimately has to be that it makes us see Auschwitz through Nazi eyes – pretty, innocuous and full of puppets, to be set to work, stripped naked and ultimately discarded. It demands that the audience works to give the puppets back their humanity – and it's hard. We have to make a leap of empathy and imagination, unaided by gore, individual tales of heroism or tearjerking sentiment. It takes time and concentration, but Kamp makes its point with subtlety and, ultimately, great power.
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