THE GIRL ON THE SOFA. To 17 August.
Edinburgh International Festival
THE GIRL ON THE SOFA
by Jon Fosse, English version by David Harrower, from a literal translation by Neil Howard and Tonje Gotschalksen
Royal Lyceum Theatre 12-17 August 2002
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thur & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 August
Hard to deny anyone the right to present such emotional bleakness, but it's hardly new and asks more questions than it answers about life.The Playwright, we are told, is Norway's leading one a fellow to make Henrik Ibsen or even Knut Hamsun - seem quite merry. The Royal Court already gave this impression with its production of his Nightsongs. The Dixon Studio at Westcliff-on-Sea suggested he has a slightly wider emotional palette.
The Director certainly doesn't seem to think so. The technology of theatre is used to serve fashionable despair, distancing everything through disembodied, miked voices, a part-time gauze, figures out of the action offering background movement often in as so often slow motion. The effect, as always, is to disorient, to alienate.
The Play begins with a Woman who has no authority for believing she can paint, sitting focused on a near-horizontal easel-table talking about painting a girl on a sofa. The Girl's clearly herself when young, or her memory of her childhood: the Woman's recollections reflect closely the events we see in this girl's life.
The sex is inevitable, and inevitably sordid. The Father is absent. The emotional lives are confused. The question is: what's new?
The Direction and Acting flatten out emotion and drain life of hope or variety. The Theatricality is telling, but the ultimate Effect is to patronise these characters, or turn them into the victims and villains of an old genre the emotional opposite of this style that is, overt heart-magnified-on-sleeve Melodrama. The Minimalist approach makes an impact as does sudden silence. The problem is, as with continued silence, by itself it soon ceases to tell you anything new.
The life shown here is only endurable through the characters' human spirit, which only makes it to the play by implication. The unrelieved melancholy becomes unconvincing, coming to seem an emotional luxury amid the careful theatrical contrivances.
The anonymous character list, too, seem an easy way of avoiding dealing with awkward, complex individuals. The lack of any real social context prevents even the sense of cause, effect and possible solution.
The style has its impact The range of life it can cover is limited though, and has been well-explored before. The cost of a ticket is quite high for 70 Festival minutes.
The Woman: Ruth Lass
The Girl: Abby Ford
The Man: Paul M Meston
The Mother: Julie Legrand
The Sister: Leah Muller
The Uncle: Daniel Cerqueira
The Sister Older: Liz Kettle
The Father Older: Michael Mellinger
The Father: Bill Pollock
Musician: Joanna Dudley
Director: Thomas Ostermeier
Designer: Rufus Didwiszus
Lighting: Urs Sconebaum
Costume: Almut Eppinger
Composer: Matteo Fargion
Dramaturg: Maja Zade
2002-08-27 01:44:41