SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR To 14 November.
Tour.
SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
by Luigi Pirandello in a new versionby Rupert Goold and Ben Power.
Headlong Theatre co-production with Bristol Old Vic Tour to 14 November 2009.
Runs 2hrs 15 minutes with one 20 minute interval
Review: Rupert Bridgwater 30 September at Bristol Old Vic.
Mad and amazing to look at.
Rupert Goold’s visually stunning new production of Luigi Pirandello’s puzzling play-about-a-play is compulsive viewing.
A bright industrial warehouse of a set is peopled by a film crew desperately trying (but failing) to make a docu-drama about a child dying in Denmark. Played in naturalistic style, these characters are in complete contrast to the six actors who gate-crash their set with a far more dramatic story to tell. The half-baked idea of the dying child is thrown to one side as they act out a story of sexual exploitation, family feuds, step-mothers and a father and son’s conflict.
It’s confusing and chaotic. Driven by Jack Shepherd as the manic and possessed father, the drama constantly surprises as the larger than life characters demand to be filmed. Shepherd dominates while brilliant Gina Bramhill, fresh from RADA, grabs the audience by their ears and won’t let go until the bloody climax as she pouts and stamps her way around the stage. Catherine McCormack is compelling as the producer who loses control of her own show.
The complex narrative is hard to follow at times. But it’s the unpredictability that engages the audience with moments of high comedy, opera, physical theatre, sex and death - all demanding your attention.
Billed as a satirical tragicomedy, the play was first performed in 1921 when the audience booed and shouted insults at the cast at the end. It was generally thought of as being the product of a deranged mind.
Transferred to the internet age, it’s about the nature of docu-drama and the characters the genre portrays. Who we are and how we would like to be portrayed. Gina Bramhill as the stepdaughter puts it succinctly when she screams at the actress who is cast to play her: “You’re nothing like me!”
Rupert Goold and Ben Power have collaborated to create a piece of 21st -century multi media theatre that entertains, questions and perplexes its audience.
Actress/Housekeeper: Sarah Belcher.
Actor/Pirandello: Russell Bentley.
Stepdaughter: Gina Bramhill.
Girl: Clare Louise Connolly.
Editor: Andrew Frame.
Mother: Hazel Holder.
Son: Jeremy Joyce.
The Exec/Mr Pace: Martin Ledwith.
Producer: Catherine McCormack.
Cameraman/Theatre Maker: Dominic Rouse.
Father: Jack Shepherd.
Boy: Christopher Allen/Oliver Bell.
Director: Rupert Goold.
Designer: Anthony Ward.
Lighting: Howard Harrison.
Sound/Composer: Adam Cork.
2009-10-08 16:27:43