Dmitry Krymov uses ordinary objects to create powerful images of epic proportion in Opus No. 7.

Rusty metal pianos crash and duel “like demented bumper cars” as one critic put it. Buckets of black paint hurled against a white wall morph into people. A medal pinned to a chest bcomes a gunshot wound. Mother Russia is represented by a monstrously large puppet, both nurturing and menacing. A blizzard of tiny bits of newsprint is a heartbreaking reminder of the people killed in the Holocaust.

Opus No. 7 by Russia’s Dmitry Krymov Laboratory is full of extraordinary moments in which ordinary objects, sounds and people are transformed to create beguiling visual images of epic proportion. At times, said The Guardian, “it seems less like theatre and more like alchemy”.

^{Opus No. 7. Photo by Natalia Cheban}

Wendy Martin was knocked for six when she saw the production in London in 2014. Appointed as Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival, it was immediately at the top of her wish list. “It’s one of the greatest pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen,” she says.

The two-part production draws parallels between the fate of Jews...