...some trace of her. To 21 October.
London.
…some trace of her
inspired by The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky adapted by Katie Mitchell and the company.
Cottesloe Theatre South Bank SE1 9PX In rep to 21 October 2008.
7.30, Mat Sat 2.30 and Wed Aug 30, Tues Sept 2, Thurs Oct 16, Tues Oct 21.
Audio-described 29 Aug 7.30, 30 Aug 2.30.
Captioned: Wed Oct 1, 7.30.
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS 020 7452 3000.
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets
Review: Carole Woddis 1 August.
From page to stage and screen, in imaginatively thoughtful interlinking.
To some Katie Mitchell is the darling of progressive theatre, to others a scourge. But love her or hate her, she is taking British theatre in new directions. Call it a fetish if you will – is it possible for her to do a production now without the sound-boom and video-recorder to hand? – but when it works it produces mesmerising theatre, a welter of impressions and sensations that sweep you up in their wake. Nothing for it but to give yourself up and just go with it.
For those who don’t wish to do that, however, it can be irritating. One story, but a double vision – stage and film simultaneously. Deconstruction and construction, hand-in-hand. And you have to work at it. You actually have to choose where to look.
As with Waves, Mitchell’s adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel, this technique, wilful though it may be in some eyes (large chunks of the original story have been jettisoned), nonethless entirely suits the hectic emotional atmosphere of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, the tragic tale of Prince Myshkin (Ben Whishaw), a utopian idealist and epileptic who becomes obsessed by a young woman, Nastasia (Hattie Morahan) and is rivalled for her love by his friend, Rogozhin (Jamie Ballard). In the end, there is a murder and the last we see of Myshkin he is a condemned man (in the novel, to insanity, though that is not clear from this production).
Being Dostoevsky, Myshkin has, however, been damned from the beginning, tormented by guilt and pity. Mitchell’s multi-purpose approach of dislocated but synchronised action by actors working also as cameramen and lighting assistants brilliantly captures the texture of the story’s convulsive emotional moral life if not its narrative twists.
Here, life – and art - really do become an illusion. What you see is not what you see. The image on the screen is created by a disjunction of actors, sounds and gestures. Yet the fakery looks fantastic with its lace table cloths, tinkling tea-cups, looming shadows and pained close-ups. The detail is indeed extraordinary, the selfless dedication of the entire company awesome. One can only marvel.
Cast: Jamie Ballard, Pandora Colin, Sam Crane, Gawn Grainger, Helena Lymbery, Hattie Morahan, Bradley Taylor, Ben Whishaw
Music played live by:
Calina De La Mare (MD/violin), alison Dods (violin), Rachel Robson (viola), Chris Allan (cello)
Director: Katie Mitchell.
Designer: Vicki Mortimer.
Lighting: Paule Constable.
Sound: Gareth Fry.
Music: Paul Clark.
Director of Photography: Leo Warner.
Artistic associate: Paul Ready.
Company voice work: Kate Godfrey.
Stage Manager: Pippa Meyer (to Aug 2), Clare Simmonds (from Aug 11).
Deputy Stage Manager: Mary O’Hanlon.
Assistant Stage Managers: Ian Farmery, Dan Read.
Waves is revived at the Cottesloe Theatre 20-23,25-27 Aug, 3-6,8-9 Sept 7.30pm Mat 2.30pm 23,27 Aug, 6,9 Sept. Audio-described 5 Sept, Captioned 8 Sept then tour: 16-20 Sept West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds, 23-27 Sept The Lowry Salford, 30 Sept-4 Oct Theatre Royal Bath, 7-11 Oct Dublin Theatre Festival. Runs 2hr 30min No interval.See Timothy Ramsden's review in the Reviewsgate archive.
2008-08-04 11:23:16