Preview of the week: Matthew Krouse
Ennio Marchetto, the living cartoon strip, doesn’t need to press buttons in order to transform himself into the 50 famous characters in his show.
Present-day computer animators may perform God-like acts in television studios that double up as laboratories for human cloning, but this Venetian mime achieves the impossible with simple cardboard costumes.
Marchetto is living proof that advanced technology isn’t the only medium that can marry fictitious actors with their real-life counterparts.
It’s a routine he has been doing for almost a decade – and it has won a wide following in the 54 countries where he has already performed.
His most recent season at the Lyric Hammersmith in London saw him garner high praise in English theatre circles. It was a season that ended with Marchetto performing for Prince Charles, alongside the Spice Girls. The critics raved – one was prompted to write that “Marchetto is in serious danger of giving mime a good name”.
Over a neutral, black suit Marchetto adorns an endless array of flat, painted outfits. On his head he places over-the-top hairstyles, while below a string of garments is unfurled. With ease he transforms himself into anyone from Marlene Dietrich to Prince. Barbra Streisand’s nose grows to Pinocchio proportions; the Pope turns into Fidel Castro. Marchetto seems to take the Mickey out of just about every siren known to man.
By impersonating the world’s most enduring cultural icons, alone on a bare stage, he comments on the fickleness of stardom. Each of the famous cast of characters gets his or her 10 seconds of Marchetto treatment – and each is depicted in a total flap.
Anyone who accompanied their parents to the seaside in younger days will remember the boardwalk photographers who snapped their subjects peeping through cleverly painted backdrops, depicting anything from a brawny lifesaver to the Mona Lisa. This is primitive Marchetto turf. It’s a concept he’s taken and turned on its head.
In a telephone interview, having returned from his stint in London, Marchetto moans about the weather in his native Venice that this week dropped to 5 degrees.
“If Venice sinks into the sea I will come to live in Africa,” he says calmly.
Marchetto’s talent is a logical outcome of classical European performance. As a mime his humour lies buried in the tradition of the commedia dell’arte. As a costumier he began his career in the 1980s, producing masks for the Venice carnival using what he terms “poor materials”. Graduating to stage performance, using full-length paper outfits, he says he “did just one costume, one character, and changed behind a screen”.
In 1988, at the age of 28 he received the Bologna Golden Mosquito comedy award.
His show may be filled with loads of female impersonation, yet Marchetto does not regard himself as a drag. Employing a European turn of phrase, he notes that: “It’s not any kind of drag – just because I do some women. Drag is not so funny. A drag tries to be the woman. But for me the paper costume is the most important thing in the show.”
This week the anomaly arrives in Cape Town, headed for the Spier Summer Festival where he will do five performances only.
Ennio Marchetto performs at the Spier Wine Estate from December 26 to 30. Defending the Caveman is on January 2 and 3. Brett Bailey’s Ipi Zombie runs from January 8 to 16. For more details about these and other performances call the festival hotline. Tel: (021) 809- 1165