Chronicle by Raoul Horn
The Union Square is so much more suitable than any other for this show. The facades, the large cubic pedestrian area, the rectangular appearance of the entire square, all of this contributes to the show called Cheval and gives it a more vivid shade, as when I first saw it in the Olympiapark in Munich.
I thought that, however, once entering the Union Square, something will be different. It felt as if the gate of the Baroque Palace had opened to this mechanical horse, and, having got accustomed to grazing among the cubic tiles, the horse decided, by a pulsation of the iron inside him, to finally let himself be tamed. First, he nickers calmly, then he becomes suddenly tense, his tin ears open to hear.
How does it feel to get tamed? Certainly, there is no instruction manual for assembling a giant horse, smothered in the sun of the Union Square. Two entities loaded with grace cannot be compared from the same level. One needs to take a step back and listen. The taming, I can say, is quite ephemeral, for nothing can exist only under the label of being tamed. It's just a stage. Obeying. In the end, it can also be art, because in equestrian choreography it is also offered – understanding and knowledge, and these, received, become art one inside the other.
Equus, the god dramatized by Peter Shaffer in the play of the same name, comes to mind instantly. Even if the circumstances of these two shows are totally different, they are connected in one aspect. In Equus, one character is the concept of worship. For Cheval, isn't taming also a form of worship?
The mechanical horse looks like taken from a sketch of Da Vinci. The people under the croup instil an apparent life in him, by simply pulling the rope or by a change of rhythm in the trot. Look, the metal rumbles on the metal and see the life, like a golem from the animal. Two possible tamed and also taming characters. The dancer tries, gives up, then recovers, and in the sight of the horse, at least for a moment, makes him obey, unafraid, untamed.
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“Theatre Chronicle @ Eurothalia” is a programme conceived by Daniela Șilindean together with the team of the German State Theatre Timișoara, within the Eurothalia 2023 European Theatre Festival, held between 20-30 September 2023, financed by the National Cultural Program Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023.
