Nijinsky’s Last Jump
five stars
27
four stars
Tramway, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
ON-STAGE, Vaslav Nijinsky’s jump – and his apparent pause mid-air – was the stuff of legends. His last jump, vividly relayed in this Company Chordelia production, took him out of the dance world for ever: diagnosed as schizophrenic, he was confined to an asylum and subjected to treatments – ranging from barbiturates to insulin-induced comas – more likely to induce mental distress than stabilise it.
A hot-ticket hit at last year’s Fringe, this piece has gained an even greater poetry and cogent provocation since. Chordelia’s director/choreographer Kally Lloyd -Jones has subtly tweaked the flow of text (by Michael Daviat) and movement while James Bryce (Old Nijinsky) and Darren Brownlie (Young Nijinsky) have utterly bonded, at every level, with the troubled, visionary soul of a creative artist defiantly out of step with early 20th century dance tropes. If the dialogue between the old man and his younger self delivers touching echoes of a once-glorious career – with bravura fragments danced live by Brownlie – it also turns a questioning eye on how we still define, and treat, mental illness.
The Petrushka puppet on-stage is a wise reminder of how other hands can pull the strings in our own lives.
Nijinsky’s career ended when he was just 29. For director/deviser Peter McMaster and his fellow performer Nick Anderson, 27 is still a significant watershed year.
First seen last year at the Arches, this exuberantly physical performance-cum-dance piece has aged superbly with some astute deletions and further reflections on how time is a wind of change that affects how, and what, we remember about growing up, and becoming who we are.
If naked honesty arrives when both men discard their initial skeleton-unitards, it is ever present in their full-frontal disclosures about family frictions, sexual encounters, personal definitions of maleness and how they relate to themselves – bouts of febrile self-loathing clinging like the ash that foretells sweaty bodies turning to eventual dust.
Irresistibly funny, unexpectedly and intensely moving, it’s a brilliantly complex response to how the present is, even now, the past. Dudes – seize the future, make more shows!
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel