The Mother

The Mother dance production inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Story of a Mother. Directed and choreographed in 2019 by Arthur Pita at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Original music composed and performed by Frank Moon and Dave Price. Stars Natalia Osipova in the role of the mother and Jonathan Goddard playing all other characters that appear, i.e., death, the babushka, the bramble bush, etc.

How far is a mother willing to go to save her child from the jaws of death? Hans Christian Andersen’s The Story of a Mother, which explores this haunting question, inspired South-African choreographer Arthur Pita to create his evocative dance theatre production The Mother. Drawing on Frank Moon and Dave Price’s mesmerizing, minimalist music and a powerful, visceral performance by star dancer Natalia Osipova, Pita creates a chilling, spellbinding ballet that blurs the lines between reality and hallucination.

On an innovative, revolving set that alternates between a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room with blackened walls, a mother (Natalia Osipova) endures a series of ominous and horror-tinged encounters with a doctor, a matryoshka doll, a widow, a smuggler, an old woman, and a soldier — all played by Jonathan Goddard, who accompanies the protagonist’s descent into hell. Each scene brings increasingly nightmarish situations, altogether forming a masterful gothic and macabre spectacle. Not for the faint-hearted!

This may be the biggest risk Opus Arte ever took, and it’s about as close as this semi-retired lawyer in Dallas, TX will ever get to the London avant-garde theater scene. It appears “Bird&Carrot” is an assumed name for Alexandrina Markvo, a female theater impresario in London. She is, I think, a 35-or-so-years-old dual British-Russian citizen who has been involved in a long list of creative and/or wild art-theater events like Pussy Riot recitals. Pita and Moon are, of course, the artists who worked up The Metamorphosis to blast Ed Watson into the theatrical jet stream dancing the role of a giant cockroach! Now Pita and Moon will try to do something similar for Osipova and Goddard. Natalie can dance, of course, just about anything as well as anyone, but she appears to want to raise as much hell as possible before age or injury forces her to retire. This opened in Edinburgh in December 2018. It played briefly in Moscow. It played next 3 times in London in June 2019, and Gerald Fox made his recording on June 20. I’m guessing it’s been seen fewer than 10 times live and by fewer than 5000 people. If this Opus Arte show becomes a hit, maybe this could even get this production into the black? If it does, then maybe we will get more Blu-rays of “experimental” modern dance works!

Natalia Osipova at Sadler’s Wells by Arthur Pita, Natalia Osipova The Metamorphosis by Arthur Pita The Little Match Girl by Arthur Pita Iolanta, The Nutcracker by Arthur Pita In Her Hands by Natalia Osipova Dancing Nation 2 by Natalia Osipova