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AURÉLIA’S ORATORIO
A stunning and surreal tour de force
By Jennifer Choi
del.ico.us
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Highly emotional, visually dazzling and refreshingly humorous, Aurélia’s Oratorio presents a beautifully dreamlike program that leaves audiences reevaluating the possibilities within their own world. “Reality outside is much more surreal than we admit,” says Aurélia Thierrée.
An unpredictable oddball, Thierrée’s character uses her charming antics to guide audiences through a dream world. With acrobatics she picked up with her family during years as a circus performer, Thierrée effortlessly mesmerizes an audience. Whether flown by a kite, taking an upside-down cab, burning her tongue on ice cream or having a cigarette with a shadow, Thierrée successfully blurs the lines between reality and fantasy.
Nonetheless, writer and director (and Thierrée’s mother), Victoria Thierrée Chaplin, doesn’t try to fool audiences as much as she encourages them to question what they deem real and imaginary. In one scene, Thierrée plays a human puppet performing an absurd yet entertaining show for a seated audience of ... well … puppets.
Poking fun at the show’s actual theatergoers, Chaplin demonstrates how what’s onstage isn’t the only thing being manipulated—the audience’s own perspective and understanding is changing too. This type of tongue-in-cheek humor prompts viewers to abandon preconceptions and welcome fantasy.
Deftly using a reversal of stage and situation, dreamlike scenarios lure viewers from complacent observation into unconscious collaboration. “When the audience decides not to figure out the tricks,” says Thierrée, “they collaborate with the creation of the illusions. They are willing to accept what’s in front of them.”
Although there are only two characters visible onstage, there’s a third, less conventional personality: the set. Misbehaving handkerchiefs, waltzing velvet curtains and costumes that quicken into their own characters are just a few of the surprises hidden within Thierrée’s topsy-turvy wonderland.
On top of Thierrée’s impressive agility and sassy stage presence, we’re also presented with a stellar soundtrack. Without dialogue, the majority of the show’s emotion is communicated through musical pairings. Well-intentioned, the production’s progression from whimsical to somber is best mapped through music.
Though short, Aurélia’s Oratorio is a visually simulating surrealist paradise with universal appeal.
AURÉLIA’S ORATORIO
THROUGH 1.3.09
AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE
LOEB THEATRE
64 BRATTLE ST.
HAVARD SQ., CAMBRIDGE
617.547.8300
TUE-THU/7:30PM, FRI-SAT/8PM, SAT-SUN/2PM
ALL AGES/$25-$79
AMREP.ORG
