Swiss team put a tour de force at ongoing NSD Theatre Festival

New Delhi, Jan 6 (UNI) Displaying their unique densely layered but clear and minimalistic expression, Swiss theatre troupe Plasma enthralled viewers at the ongoing 10th Theatre Utsav here with Delirium, a play depicting shifting perceptions of time, space and identity.

Set in an evening at a bar, the 70-minute Delirium also deals with several other vital issues including the ephemeral nature of existence, the absurdity, pointlessness and anonymity of modern life, differing perceptions of reality, relationships, gender roles and impermanence of memory.

Written and produced by the group's founder Lukas Bangerter, the one-act play leaves a profound impression with the surrealistic atmosphere it invokes, the existentialist millieu it depicts and the unexpected, out of character and seemingly ludicrous actions that the actors perform.

Delirum, inspired by the troupe's own experiences of the Finnish winter during a tour of Helsinki, exhibits a seemingly endless night which shifts perception, slowly dissolving the borders between what is fantasised, remembered and experienced. The whole sensation is accented and underlaid by the director's lyrics and the music effects of Martin Wiggers and Jan Ratschko with their electronic sounds and Hammond organ respectively.

A melange of the unexpected and seemingly absurd experiences and actions, the play seems to make a brilliant ending with a character pointing out the impermanence of memory and sensation before launching into a continuous primal and wordless -- though not discordant -- scream but plumps for a more prosaic ending with the barman closing the lights and locking up the place before exiting.

The play, featuring Lilian Fritz, Wowo Habdank, Jorgos Margaritis, Jesko Stubbe and Mirjam Zbinden, features a slew of inspired performances, while lightning by Matthias Keller was appropriate in creating the atmosphere of melancholy, pathos as well as temporal and spatial disorientation.

Plasma, which performed here in NSD's theatre festival to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations between India and Switzerland, will stage the play in Mumbai tomorrow evening as well.

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