A New Remembering Esenin

Although it is short, A New Remembering packs plenty of punch. A mournful child, Russian hip-hop, fragments of interviews and Michael Popper's muscular physique and rich baritone: there is more in Osbourne and Popper's fifteen minutes than most shows manage in an hour. Yet it never feels heavy or over-loaded, only melancholic and nostalgic, a moving elegy for the titular poet. Sergei Esenin, the writer who inspired the piece, was plagued by alcoholism and depression before finally committing suicide. Certainly, Popper's movement is regretful, interspersing bursts of energy with slow, subtle passages: his voice's timbre evokes an utterable sadness, as he sings Esenin's poems in Russian: a language perfectly suited to regret and longing. The understated lighting, which leaves Popper cast in shadow, allows the dance to emerge like shards of hopeful light before retreating. Using only a cellist, a dancer and a pre-recorded sountrack, Osbourne and Popper have stretched the limits of these few elements without allowing Remembering to become crowded or busy. It captures a mood, the shades of sadness and depression, yet in itself is a work of subdued hope and beauty. It may dwell on death and pain, but hints at memory and art as salvation.