PANDORA'S BOX. Tour to 11 May.
Tour
PANDORA'S BOX
Northern Stage Ensemble and Kneehigh Theatre on tour to 11 May 2002
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 5 April at Newcastle Playhouse
A thrilling feast of physical invention, though advance knowledge of the story is a help.For whatever reason, two of England's most exciting theatre companies live at the country's extremes, far from the supposedly culture-crowded South East. Now Cornwall's Kneehigh has joined with Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Northern Stage Ensemble in a physical, visually inventive distillation of Frank Wedekind's century-old double-headed sex-shocker.
Wedekind showed Lulu, the amoral expression of male sexual desire, arching upwards in Earth Spirit then, having murdered her protector at the end of that play, descending into degradation in Pandora's Box (this production draws on both plays). Famously, she dies at the bloody hands of Jack the Ripper.
Here her end is ever-present throughout her dizzy ascent. As she carves her way through society, leaving a trail of suicide and murder, at each death the dapper Jack can be glimpsed, watching as a camera prowls ever further up a cold stone staircase to the garret where finally, in her poverty-stricken prostitution, they'll meet.
And the dust she came from is ever-present on Neil Murray's stage, a corrugated wasteland from which the nearest thing she ever had to a parent, Mike Shepherd's threatening Schigolsch, nonchalantly emerges - a contrast to the slick, desire-riven society types Lulu's beauty attracts.
Emma Rice emphasises the pre-pubescent child-mind in Lulu's fabulous body. Seeing her lover Goll arrive at the theatre with his intended, Countess Geschwitz, the actress Lulu sulkily refuses to perform. A childish backstage tantrum gets her her way.
Yet Geschwitz's real passion is for Lulu too. And the production's strength is the usual inventive Kneehigh mix of image and music as, for example, the countess is hoisted aloft in red dress before a film of raging flames, to flicker on high in the tormented agony of desire.
At times wildly inventive in its image-flow; elsewhere almost ritualistic in its careful image set-up, this fusion of two independent-minded theatre companies, sharing a brilliant visual flair, might not reach the entire heart of Wedekind and his heroine – a lot of script has been jettisoned to create a single evening, stylistically elaborate, show. But there is no doubt the plays' turbulent spirit finds vivid expression.
Schwartz: Francisco Alfonsin
Countess Geschwitz: Bec Applebee
Alwa: Alex Elliott
Dr Goll: Carl Grose
Jack: Tony Neilson
Lulu: Emma Rice
Schigolsch: Mike Shepherd
Schon: Terry Taplin
Directors: Neil Murray, Emma Rice
Designer: Neil Murray
Lighting: Malcolm Rippeth
Film: Steve Tanner
Sound: Rob Brown
Composer/Soundtrack/Musical Director: Stu Barker
Writing: Margaret Wilkinson
Tour: 9-13 April Wilde Theatre Bracknell, 16-20 April Salisbury Playhouse, 23-27 April West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds, 30April-4 May Hall for Cornwall Truro, 9-11 May Thoresby Riding Stables Ollerton.
2002-04-18 23:48:31