THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN. To 6 May.
Leicester
THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN
by Bertolt Brecht translated by Tanika Gupta
Haymarket Theatre To 6 May 2006
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed, Thu 2pm, Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 4 May 7.30pm, 6 May 2.30pm (+ Touch Tour 90min before each performance)
BSL Signed 3 May 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS; 0870 330 3131
www.lhtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 April
Light, clear and colourful Brecht.
There was a time in British Theatre when Brecht was to be admired or revered rather than enjoyed. Kully Thiarai, who as a former director of Red Ladder Theatre ought to know about political drama, will have none of that. Nor will adapter Tanika Gupta, with her fluently witty English version.
The 3 gods searching Setzuan for a good person become style icons, their decreasing godliness as they meet cold social reality being visually pointed by limps and bruises. Only Shen Te will help them, a prostitute whose unselfishness brings trouble when the gods reward her. This is no world for moral values, and after the remote divinities’ dismissive farewell, before they soar safely into space, 2 performers provide a quietly nervous epilogue. Freely adapted, it shows actors, like most of us, have no such get-out clause in life.
Yet Thiarai’s bold, colourful staging displays this harsh view through seductive wit, passion and some delicious songs. Paul Higgs’ music incorporates attractive oriental timbres and melodic phrases with numbers that would credit a western musical; a scene in an impromptu tobacco factory offers the big-scale energy of a Musical production number, punctuated by the heavy thud of a factory production-line.
Cross-casting by gender and ethnicity has a far-from-pantomime insouciance that simultaneously jolts attention and points up characters’ behaviour. So does lighting, as a row of white lamps rear-stage on high or a sudden, pattern dappling the floor starkly announce scene changes.
Thiarai establishes an ensemble-anonymous acting style, giving a sense of busy city anarchy within order. People go about their business, individual emotions cause chaos. Yaa beautifully captures this in her alter-ego contrast of Shen Te’s emotional vulnerability, with its pleading voice and inward-focused stances, and her tough-guy guise as brother Shui Ta, with his expansive strut and confident voice - till pregnancy, the clearest vulnerability of women’s love, forces the identities together. Junix Inocian’s plausibly cheerful Wang and Daniel York as the callous pilot are also notable.
With this sensuous Brecht, followed by Pacific Overture, among the most political and genuinely oriental-focused American musicals, Leicester Haymarket is back big time.
Wang/Grandfather: Junix Inocian
1st God/Nephew/Priest: Dougal Irvine
2nd God/Boy: Nancy Wei George
3rd God/Unemployed Man/Brother/2nd Prostitute: Spencer Charles Noll
Shen Te/Shui Ta: Yaa
Client/Sister-in-Law/Policeman: Gary Pillai
Mrs Shin/Policeman/1st Prostitute/Mrs Wang: Louise Mai Newberry
Woman/Yang Sun/Old Man: Daniel York
Man/Old Woman: Bronwyn Lim
Carpenter/Policeman/Shu Fu: Irvine Iqbal
Director: Kully Thiarai
Designer/Costume: Jane Linz Roberts
Lighting: Jenny Cane
Sound: Ben Harrison
Composer/Musical Director: Paul Higgs
2006-04-30 12:08:19