Theatre reviews: The Rite of Spring | Europe Meine Liebe Mon Amour | Don Quixote
This years Manipulate festival finds the human race falling out of love with itself, writes Joyce McMillan
The Rite of Spring, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★★
Don Quixote (Is A Very Big Book), Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★★
If the 2026 Manipulate Festival has a theme, so far, it must be something to do with a species – humankind – that is completely out of love with itself, and often actively exploring alternative life-forms that might do better, or survive longer.
It’s a theme particularly suited to “object theatre”, where new life-forms can be created at the flick of a sheet of silk; and it appears in a memorably bold and disturbing form in Dewey Dell’s The Rite of Spring, a 50-minute dance reimagining of Stravinsky’s great score, for the 21st century.
Based in Cesena, Italy, the Dewey Dell company represents the younger generation of the famous Castellucci family of Italian theatre-makers, great pioneers of post-human or “dis-human” theatre; and The Rite of Spring follows that pattern, backed by a score that combines the full force of Stravinsky’s original work with sound elements designed by Demetrio Castellucci.
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The setting is a cave-like space, in which life lies dormant, and then bursts forth in various forms, notably a spectacular and wildly thrashing red and gold fabric figure. Every burst of growth and brilliance, though, is followed by conflict and death; until, at the end, there is only unthinking animal life.
The show, in other words, raises more questions about humanity, and about life on earth, than it could possibly answer. What is never in doubt, though, is the thrilling impact of the design and lighting, the breathtaking quality of the dance and movement delivered by the five-strong cast, and the sheer enduring force of Stravinsky’s mighty score; in a show that would repay watching many times, yielding up new emotions and meanings at every encounter.
At Lyra, meanwhile, Scottish-based artist and theatre-maker Bruno Gallagher presents Europe Meine Liebe Mon Amour, a 45 minute piece in four short interludes, each giving life to the object-based, mythical or animal figures that appear in Gallagher’s stylised artworks.
Despite its pan-European title – and the absence of any apparent effort to create a sense of continuity between scenes – Gallagher’s show seems haunted by figures from Germanic mythology, including a Doppelgänger, Firebirds, and the Till Eulenspiegel (Owl-mirror) and Bad Bear of the final scene; and the costumes for these figures are beautiful, stylised creations.
It’s the scene called The Face Of Truth, though – in which the three performers, including Gallagher himself, create a huge human face that spans the stage – that receives the warmest response; as if the audience were yearning for some recognisable human contact, amid all Gallagher’s vivid and haunting interplay of myths, objects, and animals.
And there is at least one Manipulate show that fully meets that yearning for human warmth. Dik Downey of the Opposable Thumb company is veteran performer in the 1970s-born English absurdist tradition, full of meta-theatrical jokes, and apologies for its own inadequacy; and it’s a style that might have been made for his poignant yet jovial retelling of the story of Don Quixote, the old gentleman of La Mancha who, in a fit of late-life madness, decides to become a knight errant.
The piece de resistance of Downey’s solo performance is his genuine mediaeval-style suit of armour, which he bought on Ebay; the clear difficulty of even moving in such a suit – for a man of a certain age – creates some of the show’s finest moments, both of slapstick comedy, and of touching vulnerability.
Also outstanding, though, are his puppet companions, notably a gorgeous little Sancho Panza made to look like Downey’s regular theatrical partner Adam Blake. And for all the show’s self-absorption, Downey’s performance as Don Quixote fully captures the true human essence of the character - old and daft, but still just about able to return to sanity, before the end.
Edinburgh’s Manipulate Festival 2026 continues until 10 February. For details see https://www.manipulatearts.co.uk/festival/whats-on/
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