THE DANCE OF DEATH by Strindberg. Mercury Theatre, Colchester to 1 December.

Colchester

THE DANCE OF DEATH
by August Strindberg Translated by Mike Poulton

Mercury Theatre, Colchester To 1 December 2001
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS 01206 573948
Review Timothy Ramsden 26 November

Strong revival of Strindberg's marital hell drama gets to grip with its tortured characters.Strindberg doesn't so much assault political correctness as commit genocide on it with his hefty misogyny. Yet when Dance of Death is played with the deep understanding of this Mercury production it's revealed as a great document on tormented human relationships.

The playing, and Mike Poulton's new English version, bear out the programme's comparison with Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Army Captain Edgar and his ex-actress wife Alice are so lost in scoring over each other and scraping away at their wounds, they seem incapable of telling where games-playing stops and truth begins. David Hunt's production begins and ends as they sit apart, staring out in bored habituation from the island fortress which is both Edgar's posting and a symbol of their marital imprisonment

They are middle-aged children using boy and girl ploys as deadly adult weapons. Floy's grizzled Edgar adopts a 'don't care' attitude and casually switches subject; Absalom's wife uses a girlish smile until she finds a sore point, swooping down on it with a verbal onslaught.

At first Ignatius Anthony's visitor from the past, Gustav (Strindberg called him Kurt; Poulton prefers a two-syllable name) seems too philosophical, but his come-uppance arrives in the turmoil when his old friend turns against him, while Alice sets out to seduce him. By the end, she's become an agitated, crudely lipsticked vamp while the men are psychological and, along with the room, physical wrecks.

Michael Vale places this room in a dark cave, the open world a distant, unachievable prospect. There's an overhead walkway, continuously patrolled to emphasise the prison idea - with some smart use of sentry movements to chime in with various moods below. Wind, rain and a heavy sea are heard throughout, while the lighting focuses the intensity of the action's peaks, often adding to the darkness outside.

This hell pursues them to death's door and beyond. The final crushing moment sees a new generation entering the torture chamber (hinting at Strindberg's sequel) and we leave the theatre with Edgar and Alice's tauntings blowing around the auditorium like restless ghosts.

Edgar: Gregory Floy
Alice: Christine Absalom
Gustav: Ignatius Anthony
Jenny/Old Maja: Natasha Buckley
Allan: David Cooper/Joel Sams

Director: David Hunt
Designer: Michael Vale
Lighting: Garry John Spraggett
Composer: Adam Cork
Choreographer: Sue Lefton
Fight director: Richard Ryan

2001-11-27 01:27:42