THE DYBBUK. To 24 February.
London.
THE DYBBUK
by S Anski adapted by Eve Leigh.
King’s Head Theatre 115 Upper Street N1 1QN To 24 February 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mar Sat & Sun 3.30pm.
Runs 1hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7226 1916.
www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 January,
Increasingly impassioned story of unruly passion.
This production has limitations: some of the mainly young cast have raw edges in performance technique, the simple costume makes it hard to work out exact status and relationships, the basic set gives little sense of a synagogue or anywhere else. And dialogue’s often handled in a contained style, avoiding the ever-present pit of emotional excess in the play, but also suppressing an amount of individuality.
But Eve Leigh’s production of her own adaptation of S Anski’s drama has one over-riding virtue, especially important in taking the piece beyond audiences aware of Jewish traditions and culture: clarity. Much of the simple staging’s determined by economics and the limited acting space, but it brings a focus on people rather than – well, beards, smoke and theatrical grandiosity.
What emerges is a ghost story, that’s also a revenge tale and a love story to put even Romeo and Juliet in the shade. Ordinary, sociable existence is contrasted to the madly irrational compulsion of instinctive love between Leah, beautiful daughter of a prosperous merchant, and Chonen, a brilliant, restless mind soured, Faustus-like, into Black Arts. His spirit, or Dybbuk, inhabits the live Leah.
Promises and betrayal lie behind their being kept apart. But the urgent, restless love the Dybbuk infuses in Leah is unlikely to find fulfilment in calm as in adversity, making Anski’s play a Jewish Wuthering Heights. Edward Hogg’s Chonen conveys charismatic wildness while Hanne Steen shows Leah’s contempt for the innocent nondescript her father wants her to marry (Jasmina Stosic plays Leah at some performances).
But it’s Hogg and Steen combined that make the startling moments, one atop the other, inseparable, arms pointing in sudden accusation, their voices combined in sharp accusation, with a violence separating them from the ordered world of synagogue and society.
Among other performances, Tam Williams in torn shirt gives a wild edge to the other outsider, while David Meyer is a powerful, if at moments underpowered, rabbinical figure of order, method and rationality. The contest between him and the lovers is a tense highlight in a production that remains involving even through its more ragged moments.
Chonen: Edward Hogg.
1st Batlon/2nd Student: Oliver Gartside.
2nd Batlon/Manashe/Michl: Thomas Morrison.
3rd Batlon/1st Student: Duncan Barrett.
Messenger: Tam Williams.
Mayer/Nachman/Shimshim: Jeremy Hancock.
Leah: Hanne Steen.
Fradde: Lisa Came.
Hanne-Esther/Bassia: Jasmina Stosic.
Sender: Chris Courtenay.
Azriel: David Meyer.
Director: Eve Leigh.
Designers: Alison Drewitt, Towera Ridley.
Lighting: Natalie Jones.
Sound: Daniel Swerdlow.
Composer: Ross Blake.
Costume: Emily Towers, Adam Kimmel.
2008-01-29 00:13:42