Hostile review – surreal spaghetti western is a wild and wordless ride

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Hostile review – surreal spaghetti western is a wild and wordless ride

The Guardian · 2 hours ago

The Edinburgh Festival hosts a French production featuring performer Olivier Rannou as a solitary cowboy stranded in a barren desert landscape. Through silent movement, facial expressions and ambient sounds, he enacts the struggles of a fugitive battling environmental hazards and psychological strain—conjuring imaginary snakes from string, hallucinating dripping water, and engaging in pantomimed gunfights, whilst electronic soundscapes amplify both the comic and sinister elements.

Created by Bakélite theatre company, the show balances physical comedy with melancholic undertones whilst showcasing remarkable set design that repurposes a simple table into increasingly complex structures, including a wooden horse that animates and exits stage-left. The live construction of these transformations offers visual delight and demonstrates considerable craftsmanship, though the deliberately cryptic nature of this wordless narrative leaves viewers uncertain about its ultimate message and significance.

  • Wordless French performance featuring a lone cowboy navigating desert dangers through mime, clowning, and visual illusions
  • Ingenious set design transforms a single table into elaborate props including an animated wooden horse
  • Entertaining yet deliberately abstract; the show's deeper meaning remains intentionally unclear

Culture

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