Guernica - An Ambitious Work

On April 26,1937, Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, was bombed by German and Italian warplanes for the Spanish Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.  Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish Republican Government to create a canvas that was later displayed at 1937 World Fair.  He created a visceral study of the suffering inflicted on the innocent during war - a mother wails over a dead child, a woman looks to the sky in fear, a man stretched out dead with a broken dagger in his hand, a horse whinnying in fear.  Guernica has since become a symbol for anti war and an embodiment of peace.

Framed by a loose narrative of Picasso creating his work of art, Erika Luckert’s play seeks to bring life to the subjects of Picasso’s painting.  As Picasso discovers, explores and eventually destroys his characters we are introduced to a series of people of the Guernica marketplace -a prostitute, a man buying fruit for his pregnant wife, an upper class mother and child, a young girl looking for marzipan, a street vendor, etc.  Through a series of inner monologues, interactions with each other and Picasso, we explore their fears and lives before they are ultimately destroyed so the master can paint his painting.

This is a dark piece that embraces the abstract and there is some very compelling stuff in here.  The piece works best when engaged in its strong movement work and use of found lighting sources.  There are some very striking visuals with the more abstract scenes coming at us like broken shards - Picasso examines each individual by lamp light, the initial introductions of the painting’s subjects, or Picasso shining his flashlight on us as if we will be the next victims of his work.    

One of the great difficulties with stylised work is allowing the characters to breath within it.  Often the performers are left with little to ground themselves in other than emotion and the result is cold, and I suspect that it the case here.  We get very little sense of the texture of the two locations (the market and Picasso’s studio), and even though they exist in the void of Picasso’s imagination, these textures are still vital to the characters themselves. They never become more than archetypes and as a result we don’t develop any sense of connection.  Guernica spends most of its time in the darker side of human nature, with no hope or joy there is little left to take away from us and the same note is hit too often.

This is an ambitious work, and although it doesn’t all come together, I applaud the bravery of this company.  Their willingness to make us uncomfortable and dive into the darker places of artistic creation, to embrace the abstract in storytelling and to push both themselves and us in their exploration creates many arresting and innovative moments.