Dual Citizens
If you like your theatre with a European feel then Dual Citizens currently playing at the Odyssey Theatre. Ron Sossi the Artistic Director of the theatre is known for his admiration and devotion to European theatre so it is no wonder that he embraced Dual Citizens for his theatre. Dual Citizens is actually two plays, Broken Nails: A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue, and Look What I Don’t Understand.
Broken Nails is performed first by a remarkable actress and puppeteer Anna Skubik. Ms. Skubik is from Poland and has performed this play around the world. She has performed the piece in Greek, Spanish, Polish, and English. Ms. Skubik was inspired by a strange saga involving Ms. Dietrich’s belongings after she died. Twenty-five tons of belongings arrived in Berlin from her Paris apartment where she had lived for thirteen years. The trunks contained rugs, toilet paper, half smoked cigarettes, feathers and an address book. It also contained a poem Dietrich had learned from her mother about loving as long as possible because death is inevitable.
The plot for Broken Nails is simple. Anna and Marlene are attached at the hip (Marlene is a life size puppet). Anna seems to be the personal servant of Marlene but their relationship is co-dependant and unhealthy. Ms. Skudik is remarkable in the way she manipulates the puppet until you almost believe it is alive. Brilliant!
Look What I Don’t Understand is a retelling by physical theatre conventions, the escape of the actor’s (Anthony Nikolchev’s) grandparents from Bulgaria. Nikolchev acts all the parts changing between them at a rapid pace. I imagine it is the actor’s way of trying to understand what happened to his grandparents so he can understand his own life in the present. One last note, Ms. Skubik and Mr. Nikolchev live together. Can you imagine their conversations at the breakfast table? Dual Citizens plays at the Odyssey Theatre until March 28th. Catch it if you can.