Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Exit, Pursued By A Bear

Exit, Pursued By A Bear. Image by Ros Kacanagh

***

Ask people what springs to mind at the mention of A Winter's Tale, and you'll likely get David Essex’s ballad from 1982. Followed by Shakespeare's problem play of the same name. Which is perhaps why Pan Pan's boundary pushing Exit, Pursued By A Bear, a humorous, meta-theatrical interrogation of Shakespeare’s play, opens with a bear choir singing an unabridged version of Essex’s Christmas classic. Pan Pan’s abridged version of Shakespeare’s tale of jealousy and redemption, with textual additions, paying exaggerated attention to a stage direction that lends its name to the production. Why? I’m not sure even Pan Pan knows. There’s lots of reasons given, but it all starts to sound like that lady protesting too much. Trying too hard to convince and persuade when the truth appears rather different.

Such as Exit, Pursued By A Bear being a performance. Gavin Quinn's direction suggests it’s really a rehearsal. Outcomes outlined by Salma Ataya’s small bear with a small voice addressing the audience via megaphone. Humorously providing background and everything you need to know about Shakespeare's story, aided by a note given to the audience. Some last-minute casting decisions and drive-by auditions see John Scott remind the world of his powerful tenor voice. As the play begins, Bruno Schwengl’s bear costumes are shed for something more Shakespearian, and with them goes most of the fun. What follows looking like a rehearsal where a newly minted cast are just about off book, ready to take it to the floor and put it on its feet. Showing no real shape or semblance of a whole, echoed in Aedín Cosgrove workshop set. Performers frequently standing motionless facing the audience, delivering lines at a level a shade above a read through. Meanwhile, a bear ambles by, or Faith Jones plays with an electronic, skull shoving spider. The visuals funny, the acting passable. Manuel Zschunke as Leontes, trying his best to portray his character, looks like he's overacting when contrasted with the others. And so it goes until intermission; a lot of heavy handed delivery interspersed with the odd visual gag.

If the first half suggests a tragedy with its imagined betrayals, operatic deaths and an abandoned orphan, the second-half embraces comedy. A sense of fun reintroduced as every conceivable, half baked, hare brained theatrical possibility is indulged in to see what might spark or what might stick. Scott hidden behind a bouquet of flowers, Anne Gridley’s carb fest baguette, a dance interpretation of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time. Pollyanna Ennis’s Perdita dancing to a dance floor banger adding grace to the mayhem. A rendition of Dire Straits Romeo and Juliet introduces yet another 80’s classic, with one more to come. Showing more contrivances than a Trump affidavit, it all slides towards a meandering monologue by a resurrected statue, so mind-bogglingly, numb inducing you hope the statue will return to stone. Proceedings ending with a whimper rather than a bang. More of an apologetic cough.

Like trying to strike up friendly conversation with a frostbitten, cold shouldered glare, Exit, Pursued By A Bear tries to make friendly connection but it never quite works out. Even so, Exit, Pursued By A Bear is a vivid reminder that Pan Pan are true theatrical innovators always seeking to surprise and experiment. Of course, not all experiments work, but they open pathways for new discoveries. Such is the case with Exit, Pursued By A Bear. An admirable effort with its fair share of laughs, Exit, Pursued By A Bear is less a rehearsal so bad it’s good as one genuinely striving to be all right on opening night. Which only adds to the humour and the charm. You have to applaud the effort but…yeah. About that opening night.

One final caveat. The pop up bar charges an exorbitant three euro for a two gulp glass of water. Six for wine you can live with. But in our current, high cost of living climate, you might want to bring your own bottle of water.

Exit, Pursued By A Bear, by William Shakespeare and Pan Pan, presented by Pan Pan, runs at The Royal Irish Academy as part of  Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 until October 13.

For more information visit Dublin Theatre Festival 2024