The stage of Budapest's Trafó has been converted for one evening into a crypt, but the atmosphere is surprisingly lively. The mounds of soil on the floor of the venue start moving and a head sticks out, then a white body shows. All the dead in this four-generation family saga come forward. But instead of being grim and dignified, they are pert and uproarious, like the characters in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Among them are a passionate old lady with long, wavy grey hair played by Maria Otal, a Butoh dancer; two fiery male rivals, played by Franck Chartier and Samuel Lefeuvre; an insomniac girl with angel's wings, played by Gabriela Carrizo; and a dictatorial sex bomb who also happens to be an excellent singer, played by Eurudike de Beul.
Eurudike de Beul demonstrates some astonishing vehemence, carrying the performance on her back. Anything she does suits her well, whether it is singing opera arias or jazz songs, playing a dictator dressed in flitters, or performing a striptease. In addition to being an excellent singer, she is completely uninhibited. This is indeed fortunate, considering that the dead characters of Dostoyevsky's novel Bobok, which was the inspiration for Peeping Tom's production, also set out to achieve shameless truth.
