Hallucinogenic Toreador

Written by Wendy Wrangham
for Expats.cz

Hallucinogenic Toreador, A DaDa Exploration

Much as I appreciate the genius of Salvador Dali (and the expressiveness of yet another famous moustache), I wasn’t entirely looking forward to an hour of surrealist DaDa exploration. So I was surprised to find myself thoroughly enjoying one of the most inventive and off the wall pieces I’ve seen yet.

Do the trio of actors characterise Dali, his disapproving wife and delicious models or are they New Yorkers infected with the poison that is surrealism? (The tail coat wearing fourth is by turns the musical accompaniment and MC of sorts.) At times, I wondered if there wasn’t a pinch of the Emperor’s New Clothes in here, that people are guilted into professing an understanding of Dali’s work and that discussing art more and more obscurely (read: with greater understanding than you) becomes a means of flirtation. Or is this, as advertised, an exploration into Dali’s subconscious as seen through The Hallucinogenic Toreador, his most autobiographical of paintings?

In the end it doesn’t matter. The wails and whistles, scatology and nudity, repetition and scattered images infect the audience and take us on a rollercoaster ride with the exceptional actors on stage – and with Dali through his episodic work of art. Suspend disbelief and wallow in this wonderfully weird performance.

Nightly at 9.30pm at Kavarna Na Prádle