A cycle of five moveable paintings of Martin Sochor entitled “The Man Who Returned” evokes an equal number of attitudes depicted by certain human traits.
As a graduate of the French School of Mime, Martin Sochor is able to follow in the famous steps of Marcel Marceau. He has marvelous technical morphology, “a bodily mime”, and he’s been able to master the technique of his celebrated teacher. His method of interpreting various roles of the above-mentioned cycle is original, especially when he uses something from his French heritage – then he becomes very Czech and a man of his time. His performance is not only about light humor, which infiltrate his creations, but about his poetic interpretation plus the irony, virility and desires of his contemporaries.
These goals cannot be obtained by this technique alone. For Sochor, with his flawless mime trappings, is also an actor – with a gentleness and depth for depicting handicapped people’s psyche and for suggesting both mental disorders and happy moments. The lives of his heroes can be found in his comments about being handicapped by an actor’s devices. From this comes the urgency of his gestures, helped to some degree by physical exertion, the kind that is rarely seen on our stage.
As a mime in Czech surroundings he’s a very unique personality. If we wanted to find an equivalent that would be close to the character of his artistic creation, then it would be the mobility and artistry of Jean Louis Barrault – a mime and actor, a former co-worker and father of Decroux’s modern movement. But also the creator of complete performances that helped to produce the era of modern French theatre.
A critique of a theatre performance “The Man Who Returned” performed in Prague’s Komedie Theatre on the 9th of September, 2006 during the 2006 Mimraj Festival.
PhDr. Ladislava Pětišková