THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE WORLD. To 18 August.
London.
THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE WORLD
by Pedro Calderon de la Barca adapted by Adrian Mitchell.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 18 August 2007.
Mon-Sat 8pm.
Runs 1hr 10min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 July.
Calderon’s cosmic cabaret or death-drama in Dalston?
They’re calling this, “A Surrealist Carnival of live music and movement”, which might have come as a surprise to the playwright. Especially the connection of his 17th-century Catholicism with Surrealism: Golden Age drama meets L’Age D’Or? Still, it’s more ticket-moving than “Hardline Catholic Cabaret”, which would be closer to the point.
It’s short: cradle to grave and Judgment Day in little over an hour. Doomsday is the real point, from an opening where the Director/God tells World of his plans and allots roles to the unborn. From King and Beauty to beggar and Stillborn Child (here, a model held by an actor who speaks his few lines), they might seem today to represent ‘the lottery of life’.
But not for Calderon, nor his stage Director. Each soul is appointed a role in life. What matters is how well they play the part. That determines the divine review they get, inviting some to sup at once with God, others to do so after a (brief) Purgatory, and one to Hell’s eternal torment.
The different cosmology is marked in the Stillborn Child’s cry: he did no wrong. No, nor any right, so is consigned to Limbo. Catholic doctrine is spelled-out as strictly as a Stalinist hack might have presented the Party Secretary’s interpretation of Marxism-Leninism. And Calderon shrewdly accommodates state as well as church: the King does his spell in Purgatory then joins the heavenly feast, while the untitled Rich Man is sent to the lower depths.
William Gaskill’s production is simply staged, a cot and coffin representing birth and death, and the heavenly meal a rather cramped suburban affair. For once the Arcola’s spaciousness doesn’t help, adding to the schematic feel as the humans enter in skeleton costumes, strung out over the stage; their individual summons to death by offstage singing is more pointed. There’s little in-between; mainly expressions of pride by wealth and Beauty, plus rejection of the Beggar by almost everyone.
There’s uneven acting too. Best are Wunmi Mosaku’s beautifully-spoken World and Aoife McMahon’s intense, starving Beggar. It makes for a decent, though hardly great, Theatre of the World.
Musical Director: Joseph Attenborough.
Beauty: Candida Benson.
Peasant: Kristian Dawson.
King: Ansu Kabia.
Beggar: Aoife McMahon.
World: Wunmi Mosaku.
Rich Man: David Ononokpono.
Director: Madhav Sharma.
Director: William Gaskill.
Designer: Jon Bausor.
Composer: Andrew Dickson.
Assistant director: Hanna Berrigan.
Design associate: Anna Jones.
Associate costume: Sydney Florence.
2007-07-23 10:28:17