Performed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, remounted in Minneapolis at Studio 6-A.
Held over at the 1999 Winnipeg Fringe
The Bellman’s Song, a two-person tour-de-force of physical theatre, is a surreal theatrical poem about one man's eternal pursuit of the impossible, after Lewis Carroll's famous poem, The Hunting of the Snark. In our adaptation of the poem, the Bellman is at the end of his life in an old seafarers home, and, incited by his nurse, makes one last attempt to catch his elusive dream.
Credits
Created and Developed by Paul Herwig and Jennifer IlseProject Initiator – Paul Herwig
Choreography - Jennifer Ilse
Scenic Design, Sound, Text - Paul Herwig
Cast - 2, Paul Herwig, Jennifer Ilse
Duration - 45 min.
Reviews
Winnipeg Free Press Review"Audiences should be forewarned that this Minneapolis company's production is utter nonsense, but that's not being snarky- the script is based on Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark. Anyone who appreciates dance and physical theatre will enjoy this playfully dark (in a Tim Burton kind of way) and delightfully surreal tale of an old fisherman who is obsessed with his failure to catch the elusive Snark. The fisherman is played by the very talented Paul Herwig, a graduate of the famed Lecoq School of Movement and Theatre in Paris, and the old man's nurse is played by dancer/choreographer Jennifer Ilse, whose puckish characterization was spellbinding. Both performers delivered with clear and exaggeratedly funny voices. The creative staging, set design, costumes and lighting evoke some fantastical atmospheres in this highly entertaining show."
- Garth Bucholz, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, July 7th, 1999
CBC Radio
"You get caught up in their dream of what the Snark is... You get swept up in the energy of it... They use all these very innovative props for windows and back drops. This is great! It's a huge theatrical experience."
- Laurie Hoogstraten, CBC RADIO & TELEVISION, CANADA, July 9th, 1999
City Pages Review
Reading the gloriously nonsensical word whimsy of Lewis Carroll's poetry can lead one to experience an out-of-intellect sensation- kind of like reading Dr. Seuss... The performers paint parts of the set to represent fire and sky, draw pictures on the floor with shards of wood, and dance in the shadows of their futile journey. Carroll's jungle-gym of words can always conjure a chuckle. Many of the visual images and musical effects are arresting... As the Bellman says at one point, "Being lost is my natural state of mind..." Which, of course, is true for all those who pursue the impossible."
- Christine Howey, CITY PAGES, MINNEAPOLIS , September 15th, 1999.