Red - A Re-Telling by both Hunter and Prey

Sebastian X Samur is a tall man – he moves with a natural ease which has obviously been honed through physical training in expressive arts. His skills with movement are the backbone of “Red,” a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story from the perspectives of hunter and prey.

Samur plays both: a sweet little “Red” and a rough Big Bad Wolf, with only a piece of red fabric and his long, fluid body as his tools. With a story so simple and worn, what tension is added to the mix comes from a novel empowerment of the audience (in the form of randomly distributed service bells). At certain places in the piece it is up to the audience to decide which character Samur will embody: ring a bell, change the character!

Samur’s interpretation relies mainly on physical humour to keep the audience entertained; that, and the bell-licious power of his audience, where with a simple hand-strike anyone watching can pull Samur’s strings and turn him into a completely different character. Fun, right? Yes, but only for the first few “dings”. Soon enough, the trick is played out, but the play keeps going and must stand on its own to entertain.

The balance of silliness-to-depth fell too far to the silliness side of the equation to work for me, but there were many in the audience who were obviously well amused (especially younger viewers...and a few friends and family, I believe). The AV component of the production (created in collaboration with Fiona Beckett) didn’t  complement the physicality of the piece enough, and the physical component didn’t show enough variety to flesh out a really interesting story. But, there was talent there, certainly, and the effort was curiously interesting. Recommended for families with older children.