MERLIN AND THE CAVE OF DREAMS. To 22 January.
Manchester
MERLIN AND THE CAVE OF DREAMS
by Charles Way Music by Richard Taylor
Library Theatre To 22 January 2005
Mon-Sat various dates 10.15am 2pm 2.30pm 7pm no performance 24-26 Dec 3-4 Jan
Audio-described 6 Jan 2pm 15 Jan 7pm
BSL Signed 31 Dec 2.30pm 6 Jan 2pm 21 Jan 7pm
Captioned 1 Jan 7pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 236 7110
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 December
A human look at a British myth, where the narrator's actions speak louder than his words.Exciting, colourful, adventurous: all apply to this year's Library Theatre collaboration between writer Charles Way and director Roger Haines. If any of those words seem hard to relate to the show, it's the central one. For this is a tale and a stage suffused in dark tones.
Yet Way emphasises the humanity of King Arthur's early life as a boy who is shocked to learn his honest woodland parents Ector and Gwyneth aren't his biological forebears. First seen affectionately bickering and suffering slight, self-inflicted hurts while going about their daily business, Ector, Gwyneth (and their home) are interrupted by history in the shape of Wyllie Longmore's grave, authoritative Merlin.
For it's time to pull a sword from a stone. And that's where Way's dream element comes into play. Dreams are about the future and Excalibur is first seen by Arthur in a premonition 4 miles from where he will actually come upon it. Haines creates this dream-sword in a striking image: rising slowly, held firm by two stony-hued, masked figures. Later, it will be there in actual stone but the point's been made; there's purpose to these events.
Though Arthur's brother Cei treats him as a bit of a young duffer, the relationship's friendly enough, Way inserting a fraternal joke against the parents fixed up by Patrick Connolly's conscientious Cei with Alexander Campbell's still happily innocent Arthur. And in the dream which forms most of the later action Cei becomes Arthur's saviour.
Oedipal overtones waft around the story if not quite settling on the characters. But the most awkward element is Merlin himself. A sense of his magic's powerfully present in Roma Patel's video images and Kate Burnett's magical, moving set, suggesting an unreal forest.
Yet, while it's Arthur's story, Merlin's the storyteller. Like a prosy old relative he keeps returning to tell everyone how all-knowing he is (despite once admitting things aren't going as expected). He'd be more powerful if, like a Victorian child, he were seen without having to be so repeatedly heard. It's his enacted dreamcave and Arthur's step-by-step progress that give this production its power.
Merlin: Wyllie Longmore
Arthur: Alexander Campbell
Cei: Patrick Connolly
Gwyneth/Washer at the Ford: Rebecca Steele
Ector/Rhitta of the Beards: Duncan Henderson
Igraine: Helen Kirkpatrick
Uther Pendragon: Christian Bradley
Director: Roger Haines
Designer: Kate Burnett
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: Paul Gregory
Projection/Video Design: Roma Patel
Movement: Niamh Dowling
Fight director: Renny Krupinski
2004-12-19 10:56:38