SYLPH by Jodi Rose @ The Depot Theatre, Marrickville

The incredible and legendary story of ballerina Marie Taglioni, born in Sweden in 1804 and is magnificently performed by Gertraud Ingeborg. Brava Gertraud Ingeborg, brava. A so very wonderful and outstanding one woman play, now in its second run in Sydney in 2018 at The Depot Theatre, and then touring, and in May 2018 the play will be performed in Europe. A woman of the world, in a world controlled by men. Performed in English, but includes some perfectly spoken words in both French and German. Recommended.

In the 1800s, a daughter trained by her father to be the the best of the best ballerina. Innovative and pioneering, she became the first prima ballerina to appear to float, sublime and effortless, with movements on stage, akin to that of fairies and butterflies, and instantly become a unique super-star, and in that era quite unlike many other ballerinas who danced like elephants, and Marie Taglioni revolutionised ballet by dancing “en pointe”.

With the mention of the world of the fairies and in particular the fairy Pooka (think the James Stewart movie HARVEY). Marie Taglioni on stage however was known for her chaste, floating on air, ethereal, sylph-like movements. Marie Taglioni acquired a royal count for her first husband, but without his knowledge had an incredible wanton and quite scandalous private love life, with multiple simultaneous affairs, and a royal lover in every performance city.

Reflecting on her extensive career, we experience the choices she made, and her early childhood life and expectations, and then recollections as a teenager who trained and trained every day for four hours, constant repetition building muscle strength and graceful agility. Manipulation by her father, and then her husband. Enjoying the advantages of finally having money and power, to gain all the sexual freedoms that men had, but were permanently denied to women. After the birth of the first child, not knowing who fathered her other children. A gentle and extremely moving performance throughout, covering the decades of Marie Taglioni’s well-deserved stardom, during her long and well-lived life.

Her most famous roles were as the mysterious fairy with extraordinary lightness in “La Sylphide” (The Sylph) for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1836, and as a butterfly in “Pas De Quatre”.

First-time playwright Jodi Rose, has worked as a ballerina with Margot Fonteyn and the Bolshoi Ballet, and was a ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet Company in New York USA, and moved to Australia in 1994. She continues to teach at Jodi Rose Ballet in Woollahra. Her writing and lecturing on the subject of end-of-life care took shape after the death of her husband, Australian Olympic Swimmer Murray Rose.

Cast: Gertraud Ingeborg
Producer: Gertraud Ingeborg
Director, Designer, Choregrapher: Colleen Cook
Lighting designer: Martin Kinnane

HARLOS PRODUCTIONS presents SYLPH by Jodi Rose, from 25th April until 28th April 2018. Performance times – 8pm Wednesday, 8pm Thursday, 8pm Friday, and 2pm 8pm Saturday.

Duration of sixty-five minutes, and there is no interval.

The Depot Theatre, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville, [Facebook] with on-site free car parking.