THE PIANIST To 27 June.

Manchester.

THE PIANIST
conceived by Mikhail Rudy based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman .

Royal Exchange Theatre To 27 June 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 27 June (advise box office of using signing - do not book online).
Runs 1hr 40min No interval.

TICKETS: 0161 833 9833.
www.royalexchange.co.uk (£2 transaction fee online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 June.

Expressive use of theatrical style and restraint.
For a telling contrast between the strengths of screen and stage, compare Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist with this stage piece, rightly resurrected from the 2007 Manchester International Festival. Both are based on the memoir of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew whose career as a concert pianist was interrupted in 1939 by the Nazi invasion.

Polanski shows directly the horror of Nazi oppression and Szpilman’s struggle to survive. Neil Bartlett’s staging uses the concentration of pianist Rudy Mikhail’s conception – a bare stage with a grand piano at its centre. Actor Peter McGuinness begins seated silently nearby. Man and artist face each other.

Intermingled with piano pieces – Chopin predominantly, especially the Preludes, with their concise dramatic worlds of music – Guinness recalls Szpilman‘s experiences, from the early part of the ghetto when he played in cafes, with his nightly walks home, bringing glimpses of people affected, and crazed, by the trauma of occupation. Chopin’s romantic aspiration and Polish history a century on contrast each other

Then things get personal, as Szpilman’s family innocently volunteer for what they don’t realise are the Auschwitz-bound cattle-trucks; the pianist is rescued just in time. Life become increasingly severe, food and heat its naked imperatives. Eventually, as victory drains from Germany he’s found by a soldier. “Are you Jewish?” the man asks, amazed a Jew has survived. “Are you German? Szpilman replies, astonished at the man’s friendly manner.

Quietness and intimacy hold the attention. Five years are covered in just over ninety minutes; a seeming eternity which feels neither overlong nor unduly compressed, time shifting forward as lighting occasionally covers the whole stage, or beams create darkness around as they point upwards into space, later picking-out the haze of a bombed-out, burnt-down Warsaw.

When not playing, Rudy stares ahead, occasionally looking at his other self as if some stranger reminds him of the past, while the world around can only be contemplated as an enigma. And Guinness is outright superb, summoning each experience while never forcing or theatricalising emotion or description. His sustained, restrained intensity reaches, unforgettably, into every moment and every corner of Szpilman’s ghetto life.

Performed by: Peter Guinness (actor), Mikhail Rudy (piano).

Director: Neil Bartlett.

2009-06-22 08:25:18