Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – William Kentridge’s monumental, sprawling spectacle THE HEAD AND THE LOAD at the Park Avenue Armory was an unsettling, poetic epic

• By drediman
• December 20, 2018
• No Comments

William Kentridge’s “The Head and the Load” at the Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall. Photo by Stephanie Berger.

Earlier this month, I caught South African artist William Kentridge’s monumental The Head and the Load at the appropriately massive Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. His visceral, collage-like aesthetic brings an untidy urgency to the little-commemorated experience of Africans who served in World War I (the conclusion of the Great War celebrates its centennial this year), much like what Indian-British choreographer Akram Khan – another important contemporary artist – did for Indian soldiers in the same conflict in the exquisite Xenos (which I had seen at this fall’s White Light Festival), Khan’s alleged farewell appearance in a solo work. Sadly, casualties of native soldiers from both British colonies were heavy, a fact generally omitted from the history books.

There really is no tangible plot to be followed in Mr. Kentridge’s imaginatively-fertile, Dada-inspired epic. Indeed, its succession of hallucinatory, emotionally-charged – and often times disturbing – stage pictures seems to remind us that history isn’t necessarily tethered to a narrative. That events occur, he seems to emphasize, is as chaotic and mysterious as anything else in the universe. To convey this concept, Mr. Kentridge has created an overwhelming multi-disciplinatory pageant that spans animation, song, movement/dance, theater, performance art, art installation, sculpture, set against a hodgepodge of various interwoven texts (Mr. Kentridge had brought the same fragmented, topsy-turvy sensibility to the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose, to similarly smashing effect).

Mr. Kentridge could not have done it alone. The clamorous, largely traditional African music – the score also includes a good dash of snippets from the works of then avant-garde European composers – is by his long-time collaborator Philip Miller and co-composer Thuthuka Sibisi. Additionally, the rollicking choreography is by Gregory Maqoma. Their musical and choreographic contributions were brought to vivid life by a huge cast that included singers, dancers, and performers from the world over. The Head and the Load is a singular, sprawling spectacle that could have only been realized at the Park Avenue Armory. Those who were lucky enough to catch it were privy to an extraordinarily immersive, complex, and mind-opening point of view, in equal parts unsettling and poetic.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE HEAD AND THE LOAD
Off-Broadway, Performance
Park Avenue Armory, in a co-production by 14-18 Centenary Commissions, MASS-MoCA, and the Ruhrtriennale
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed