The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk is a deeply romantic and affecting play. It succeeds not because it depicts the marriage between the painter Marc and the writer Bella Chagall as idealised, but as a real, flawed and passionate relationship. Through a mixture of song, dance and drama, we see their lives fold out. Marc embarks on his painting career as an early proponent of modernism, frustrated by his lack of recognition in his homeland. Bella has her own ambitions, with a natural aptitude as an expressive writer, but is limited by supporting her at times blinkered and egotistical husband.
The context of their lives is the story of the nearly annihilated Russian-Jewish community. They are adrift in at best ambivalent, most often hostile, world with each other as their only support. The audience follows Marc and Bella through the oppression at the dwindling Tsarist regime, the violence of the Revolution and its false promises, and finally fleeing to the West as their portion of the Motherland falls to the Nazis. The Chagalls are forever caught between their own Jewish culture which has a dismissive disposition towards Marc’s art, continental Europe which is accepting but remote, and Russia – their home which treats them with disdain.
Kneehigh’s production is a revival, written by Daniel Jamieson and directed by the Bella of the original performance (and artistic director of the Globe) Emma Rice. It shows all the assurance you would expect from such practiced hands, even with a such a minimal set up for a two-hander. Marc Antolin and Daisy Maywood are mesmerically convincing as the two lovers, ably accompanied by the on stage musicians.
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk captures all the humour, affection, bickering, compromise, resentment and reconciliation of a real relationship. On top of this it stands as an insightful and personal account of a now lost period of Eastern European Jewish culture. And above all, a testament to the works of Marc Chagall, the brilliant memoirs of his wife Bella, which were so tragically published posthumously. ★★★★★ Fenton Coulthurst 2nd May 2018
