Meeting Karpovsky
- Written by: Helen Moulder, Sue Rider and Jon Trimmer
- Directed by: Sue Rider
- Circa Two
- 10 February − 25 February
Award-winning production returns
"Pure magic... together they are magnificent" - The Listener
Sylvia used to travel the world and its famous ballet theatres. Now she spends time alone in her wisteria covered attic filled with her daughter's unwanted possessions and photographs of her favourite ballet dancer, Alexander Karpovsky - she has seen him dance 127 times. One day the silent Karpovsky mysteriously appears and begins to teach the stumbling Sylvia to dance...and to live.
"an extraordinary work full of humour, delight, drama and surprise" - The Listener.
Originally produced to rapturous response in 2002, Meeting Karpovsky toured New Zealand in 2003/4 and won Listener Best Play and Chapman Tripp Actress of the Year. Following popular demand it now returns for a strictly limited season.
Created by Helen Moulder, Sue Rider and Jon Trimmer with music by Tchaikovsky, weber, Stravinsky, Adam and Bach.
Presented by Willow Productions.
"stirkes a unique chord...a must see" - The Press
"delivers the kind of rewards that only live theatre can offer" - National Business Review
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)
LATECOMERS WILL NOT BE ADMITTED
Cast and crew
Helen Moulder and Sir Jon Trimmer
Show times
10 February − 25 February
7.30pm Tuesday to Saturday (except Fri 24 Feb at 5.30pm)
4.30pm Sunday
Ticket prices
$38 Adult
$33 Senior Citizens (65+)
$33 Groups 6+
$30 Friend of Circa (10-25 February)
$25 Preview (Friday 9 Feb)
$25 Special Sunday (12 Feb)
Reviews
Meeting Karpovsky
Reviewed by Maryanne Cathro
Moving Mastery
Circa Two is one of my Happy Places. To date I have enjoyed only the most delightful and moving theatrical experiences in its intimate space, and Meeting Karpovsky is no exception. This beautiful piece of theatre brings together two extraordinary performers, Helen Moulder and Sir Jon Trimmer, performing a unique pas de deux that interweaves ballet and theatre seamlessly.
All we know is that Sylvia Morton is a ballet fan who knows all the steps but has two left feet. In her attic room filled with crates of her daughter's unwanted stuff and blown up photocopies of her favourite dancer, Alexander Karpovsky, she is frittering her life away. Then one day, the great Karpovsky himself appears as if from nowhere, and compels her to dance. The rest you just have to see for yourself.
Helen Moulder's Sylvia is a delight. She is funny and sad and credible, and her journey of self discovery and acceptance is beautifully portrayed, timed and delivered.
Jon Trimmer's Karpovsky is expressive, engaging and enchantingly enigmatic. He commands the stage without upstaging his partner, and dances and mimes with the grace of a master.
This play is executed in all aspects with the same mastery and professionalism as its two performers deliver and deserve. The set (David Thornley) and lighting (Phillip Dexter andDeb McGuire) are seamless members of the corps de ballet, wrapping around the performers to support and enhance them. A special mention to Deb McGuire whose lighting operation was cue perfect.
I love theatre that unabashedly knows it is live theatre and embraces the opportunities that only live theatre can provide to suspend disbelief, engage an audience, and transcend reality to deliver a more meaningful truth. Such theatre moves us and we are never quite the same again. Meeting Karpovsky is such a piece of theatre.
How blessed we are to get the chance to see this show in its reprised season.
