Sealskin

Laura Hughes reviews this multi story performance

Expats.cz Staff

Written by Expats.cz Staff Published on 31.05.2010 09:41:39 (updated on 31.05.2010) Reading time: 1 minute

Sealskin takes us through the rollercoaster of emotions which a middle aged brother and sister face as they reunite after their father´s death, all the while trying to agree about how their mother´s abandonment affected them many years ago.

A strong parallel is created between their real life story and the folktale of the sealskin story, which their mother tells them, as the show interweaves the two tales throughout. Initially the telling of the folklore tale creates quite a beautiful cradle for the brother´s and sister´s real-life story to be mirrored in. However, as things progress and the interplay between both develops to be a straight narrative parallel, the tale does become tedious.

The dialogue soon becomes repetitive as we hear the same conversation over and over between the brother and sister, characters whom fail to develop during the story. The play is burdened by how heavily it relies on narrative, with many moments when it feels it could have benefited by a more multi-faceted approach.

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