PRAXIS MAKES PERFECT | STAGE REVIEW
Secret location, Cardiff, Thurs 2 May
words: SHARON MORSE
★★★★
“We’re going to subvert the idea of a rock gig,” Neon Neon front man Gruff Rhys is recently quoted as saying about Praxis Makes Perfect, based on the band’s recently released concept album. A bold statement to make, but happily one that is lived up to.
From the moment you, the audience, receive your ‘instructions’ (disclose your location to no-one, wear something red, bring a favourite book) you are included and immersed in a fascinating, surreal and, somewhat surprisingly considering the subject matter, extremely fun show.
Praxis Makes Perfect is inspired by the life and death of wealthy Italian left-wing political activist, alleged terrorist and – somewhat less dramatically – publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Against the ‘advice’ of his party he published Boris Pasternak’s notorious Dr. Zhivago, and his political leanings and interests led to meetings with Bolivia’s Regis Dubray, and inevitably Fidel Castro and Che Guevara (publishing works by both) forever marked him as a target for the CIA and other interested parties. Feltrinelli seems to be a contradictory figure: dying a mysterious death whilst allegedly attempting to blow up the electricity supply in Milan, yet advocating the more passive approach of “Reading Is Resisting”, you somehow manage to feel a detached kind of sympathy at his ultimate downfall.
The whole performance is played out quite literally amongst the audience by the talented and enthusiastic performers from National Theatre Wales, who pop out of filing cabinets, scale ladders, worm their way through the crowd carrying placards and pinning fellow ‘anti-establishment sympathisers’ with badges, with the politics and story relayed to us through comedy (the Castro scenes are a particular highlight), music, visual imagery and drama.
Musically, Gruff Rhys, producer Boom Blip and the excellent Neon Neon band are as equally enthusiastic as the actors, and somehow manage to make their collection of extremely catchy, synth-pop songs work seamlessly with the story itself. A thoroughly entertaining evening of music, theatre and political storytelling, Praxis Makes Perfect is an absolute must see.
It runs in Cardiff until Sun 5 May, and is then on limited tour throughout the UK until Sun 15 Sept.
Info: www.nationaltheatrewales.org/praxismakesperfect
