LE SOULIER DE SATIN. To 17 August.

Edinburgh International Festival

LE SOULIER DE SATIN
by Paul Claudel

Edinburgh Festival Theatre To 17 August 2004
Runs 11 hours Three intervals
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 August

Magnificent production of a play that is not afraid to use complexity to explore major questions.If sought-after tickets are "hot", those for Le Soulier de Satin have been refrigerated going on deep-freeze. The massive stage-space these nine and a half playhing hours require meant using the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, home to muisicals, opera and dance. But whatever this production didn't do for the EIF Box Office or headline percentages, it's undoubtedly been a major artistixc plus - a work of astounding imagination both as script and in Olivier POy's produiction., it's humbling to think it's not even France's national theatre company that can stage this epic. Le Centre Dramatique National Orleans-Loiret-Centre is just one of several, clearly well-funded regional branches of a major theatre network throughout the country.

And as some of England's major reps line up to begin autumn seasons with adaptations of films and a novel, Claudel arrives to put us to shame. True, the author didn't write with actual staging in mind. And, at home, his work is far more celebrated than it is over here. But it's still an astounding achievement of the imagination.

The production arrives when France's other 20th century artist with deep Catholic beliefs, the composer Olivier Messiaen, is being celebrated in London at the Proms, with three of his major works among others. Both are inclusive in their wide artistic vocabulary. Claudel's is far from a tame church drama; indeed director Olivier Py says he's been accused of writing new material. He hasn't, but some people have found it hard to believe the wide tonal range of Claudel's play. Career diplomat he may have been, but his script ranges freely into the world of ribaldry and farce.

There remains an intriguing conflict between the author's Catholicism and his latest director's post-1960s sensibility. The play's set in the late 16th century, in an ever-expanding world. The Spanish voyages of discovery and South American conquest are its backdrop. The action ranges across continents and turns the accomplishment of many years into its, admittedly capacious, hour-glass. But it's hard to think Claudel intended his male protagonist to reach Japan and speak of his mission to bring Christianity there while swigging from a wine bottle, in an alcohol-fuelled voice.

But staging and production match the play, apart perhaps from the extended scene at the end of the third (of four) 'Day' into which Claudel divided it. It's one of many sustained duologues, at a point when emotional and physical exhaustion cannot be far away; it's amazing it comes over as strongly as it does.

The staging's based on grand, circular set elements. One's star-encrusted. The Spanish King announces his intention to send voyagers across the world while balancing atrop a huge globe. There are great staircases, which wheel round, showing different aspects of a situation. So, the small, early action which determines, for Claudel, all that will happen is when Dona Prouheze places a satin slipper (never again seen in the plot) in the Virgin's shrine. When the shrine, high up, is wheeled round we see the weeping, arrow-pierced bust is a shabby mannequin.

It's a pity the theatre in which Edinburgh programmed this magnificent production had to be the one with the least comfortable seats. But however numbed-down it was as a physical experience, this ranks with the equally ill-attended trilogy of The Europeans a few years back as a mighty justification of Edinburgh's theatre programme.

L'Annoncier/L'Ange gardien/L'Irrepressible/L'Actrice: Michel Fau
Le Pere Jesuite/Don Rodrigue: Philippe Girard
Don Pelage/Almagro/Frere Leon: Bruno Sermonne
Don Balthazar/Don Fernand/Saint Jacques/Le Chambellan/Bidince: Jean-Francois Perrier
Dona Prouheze: Jeanne Balibar
Don Camille/Hinnulus: Miloud Khetib
Dona Isabel/La Luna/La Cameriste: Elizabeth Mazev
Don Luis/L'Alferes/Cavalier/L'Archeologue/Balazuc/Sentinel/Don Rodilard/Un Officier/Maltropillo/Le Lieutenant/Soldat: Olivier Balazuc
Le Soldat/Commis/Le Vice-roi de Naples/Un Indien/St Adlibitum/Sentinel/Un Officier/Don Mendez Leal/L'Ane/Don Alcindas: Nazim Boudjenah
Le Roi D'Espagne/St Nicolas: Christophe Maltot
Le Chancelier/Cavalier/Seigneur/Don Gusman/St Denys d'Athenes/Don Ramire/Mangiacavallo/Soldat: Guillaume Durieux
Le Peintre/Le Japonais Daibatsu: Pierre-Andre Weitz
Le Chinois/Le Maitre Drapier/Le Chapelain/Ruis Peraldo/Don Leopold Auguste/Alcochete: John Arnold
La Negresse Jobarbara/La Logeuse/La Bouchere: Sylviane Duparc
Le Sergent napolitain/Cavalier/Seigneur/Le Capitaine/Ozorio/Sentinel/Bogotillos: Damien Bigourdan
Dona Musique: Alexandra Scicluna
Dona Honoria/L'Ombre Double/Le Squelette/La Religieuse: Mireille Herbstmeyer
St Boniface/La Servante/Sept-Epees: Celine Cheenne
L'Enfant Sept-Epees: Anna Killy
Diego Rodriguez: Olivier Py
Director/Lighting: Olivier Py
Designer/Costume: Pierre-Andre Weitz
Dsigner - armoury/sculpture: Fabienne Killy
Assistant Costume: Nathalie Begue
Music: Stephane Leach

2004-08-22 17:25:32