TRISTAN AND YSEULT: Kneehigh Theatre
Birmingham
TRISTAN AND YSEULT
by Carl Grose & Anna Maria Murphy
Kneehigh Theatre at the Birmingham Rep: Tickets 0121 236 4455
Runs: 2h 20m: one interval: till 19 November then touring abroad
Performances: 7:30 pm nightly / Thurs matinée 2:30 pm
Review: Steven Thomas: Birmingham Rep: 15 November 2005
A cracking night out that brings this mediaeval Cornish folk tale bang up to date.
A Cornishman, a Breton and an Irishwoman walk onto a stage… but that isn't the first of the many laugh-out-loud moments in this energetic and modern re-telling of this popular Celtic tale of love, loss and power. Kneehigh's fusion of speech, music, dance and even pantomime is a sexy, sassy, rollicking piece of theatre which leaves its audience of predominantly younger adults panting for more.
Mistress Whitehands, patron of the Club of the Unloved, is our guide through the world of Celtic politics. Her adoring club members (played with often ad-libbed abandon by the ensemble), with their twitchers' binoculars and notepads, wait to be hauled off the shelf and gain vicarious pleasure re-telling the great love story they have witnessed.
King Mark defeats an Irish invasion of Cornwall and demands the hand of his attacker's sister Yseult, sending Breton newcomer Tristan to do his bidding. Resigning herself to her fate, Yseult quaffs a love potion to allow herself to love Mark, but confusion arises and she instead falls for Tristan on the journey to Cornwall.
The Unloved prove that it is impossible to love two people totally whilst, as her story becomes clearer and Amanda Lawrence's assured performance gains depth, we learn that Whitehands knows this only too well.
As Yseult, Hungarian actress Éva Magyar is a suitably flame-haired Irish temptress, although her diction was difficult to grasp over the accompaniment on two occasions. Tristan Sturrock's Tristan is probably the raunchiest male performance seen at the Rep this year. Comedy honours go to pantomime dame Craig Johnson as Yseult's devoted maid Brangian, who surprises with one poignant moment that defies his earlier hamming.
Given that this show was originally developed for outdoor performance, there is a surprising intimacy to its more sensitive moments. Equally, theatrical confines do not limit the scale of this epic Celtic story. Outstanding live music, energetic dance, roaring comedy and real sadness meet head-on in this cracking show whose tour concludes here in Birmingham, before visiting Sydney and Wellington in 2006.
A Cornish company, Kneehigh has quietly been making a name for itself over several years, but this was the first of their productions I've seen - my loss. It will not be the last.
CAST & COMPANY:
Morholt/Brangian: Craig Johnson
Frocin: Giles King
Whitehands: Amanda Lawrence
Yseult: Éva Magyar
King Mark: Mike Shepherd
Tristan: Tristan Sturrock
Musicians: Stu Barker, Fiona Barrow, Alex Vann, Michael Vince
Animateurs: Simon Harvey, James Traherne
Director: Emma Rice
Designer: Bill Mitchell
Lighting Designer: Alex Wardle
Sound Designer: Gregory Clarke
Musical Director: Stu Barker
Dance Consultants: Graeme Puckett, Ann Peskett
Fight Consultant: Terry King
2005-11-16 16:48:24