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La Merda

 
William Leckie Review by William Leckie 5 Published: 18 Aug 2022 Summerhall Show Dates: 16 Aug 2022-28 Aug 2022

10 years on from its 2012 Fringe debut, La Merda remains raw and relevant. Christian Ceresoli’s script offers a unique dissection of a female actor’s consciousness from childhood through to the precipice of celebrity. Layered commentaries unfold on Italian nationalism, the lamentation of a patriarchal golden age, contemporary bulimic consumerism, and the pervasive experience of female bodily objectification. Performed by Silvia Gallerano, with her bare body atop a raised stool in Summerhall’s sinister Demonstration Room, the audience was shocked into submission by her confronting dynamism.

A confrontation with the violence of being alive

Gallerano’s virtuoso technique excluded the possibility of generic narration so common to one-person performances. Tying a web of images together, she whispered and shook, sang and screamed her way through a polyphony of voices, delivering each via a hand-held microphone. The characters she channelled were both compelling caricatures and starkly real representations. It was as if each threatened to overwhelm the sporadically vincible woman at any moment, slicing away at her determined autonomy unless she overcame them first.

An initial technical malfunction accompanied by a panting dog that stunk of piss added to the preview’s special atmosphere as she sat like a subject about to be experimented upon. Gallerano’s ability to handle this specific set of circumstances and, indeed, to incorporate these happenings into the performance itself was testament to her inspiring skill. La Merda seemed inherently bound to her daring style, her ability to channel the abject and express the fragments of shit which make up everyday life. Everything and nothing was regurgitated through her body, which remained stuck to the seat and yet seemed to constantly change.

The stark lighting and lack of sound design, apart from Gallerano’s bracingly unique voice, were hardly noticeable since her performance filled the space, moving beyond the stage and penetrating the audience, who remained hypnotised by her figure throughout the play. This barren image, alongside the cyclical nihilism of Ceresoli’s writing, seemed to communicate the most basic essence of theatre itself: a confrontation with the violence of being alive.

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The Blurb:

**** (Guardian, Times). Winner of six major theatre awards at the Fringe including Scotsman Fringe First and The Stage Best Actress Award. La Merda's poetic and shocking stream of consciousness on the human condition has thrilled sell-out audiences around the world, from Europe to Brazil and Australia to North America. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Cristian Ceresoli’s acclaimed original production returns for 12 special shows in the same intimate space where this international theatre phenomenon began, with Silvia Gallerano reprising her award-winning unmissable performance. 'One of the most wonderful full on performances ever seen in Edinburgh' **** (Scotsman).