TRISTAN & YSEULT. To 2 August.

Ollerton

TRISTAN & YSEULT
by Emma Rice, Carl Grose and Annamaria Murphy

Kneehigh Theatre To 2 August 2003
Runs 2hr (+ rain checks as necessary) One interval

TICKETS: 0115 941 9419
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 July at Rufford Country Park

Theatrically adventurous, dramatically compelling.You don't expect the love-story of Cornish King Mark's servant Tristan and Irish princess Yseult to start like this - a chorus of squawky-voiced Anoraks with notepads picking out lovers, not locomotives. They're the unloved, a dark frame to the picture of flaming passions to follow.

Tristan's a Cornish legend, appropriate for Cornwall's remarkable Kneehigh Theatre who have performed this open-air spectacle in Lostwithiel, before being brought to ruined Rufford Abbey by Nottinghamshire's admirable touring arts programme Stages.

Tristan Sturrock's handsome Tristan's clearly not born to be unloved. A brave fighter, his romantic appearance enhanced by wounds and being born in Sorrow', he lies obsessively breathing the question: Noir ou blanc?' one of several apparently random elements to acquire unexpected resonance. Like a kaleidoscope, Tristan's colourful elements finally settle into a recognisable picture, bringing strong narrative drive to an experimental performance style.

There's astonishing tonal variety, from intensity to apparently irrelevant comedy - the unloved' chorus, or Giles King's Frocin, whose comic audience cheerleading at King Mark's wedding reflects the wounded vanity of an ultra-loyalist dislodged by Tristan's rapid rise.

And Emma Rice's apparently detached narrator - bright yellow-clad with the buttoned-up formality of a proud aunt at a christening - contrasting Eva Magyar's Yseult, first glimpsed running high in the Abbey ruins, then climbing down its wall, wilful and wild, with free-flowing clothes and hair.

The only problem is excess of material - King Mark's growing awareness of the complexities of kingship is described not displayed, explanation of Rice's ultimate role is hurried in, though its impact is dramatically shocking.

The power of recognition as the pattern finally falls into place provides an overwhelming climax. The Wagnerian element of a musically eclectic sound-track moves beyond the tragic Tristan chord' and the dryness of Tristan awaiting Yseult. As Wagner's orgasmic conclusion swells over the white sails Tristan, dying, never sees, both his question and Rice's character fall into place, consummating the comic chorus in a new, tragic perspective. With burning hearts raised aloft, Liebestod joins Gotterdammering for an ending as dramatically rich as it is theatrically spectacular.

Morholt/Brangian: Craig Johnson
Frocin: Giles King
Yseult: Eva Magyar
Whitehands: Emma Rice
King Mark: Mike Shepherd
Tristan: Tristan Sturrock
Chorus/Animation: Dean Wills, Steve Fergus

Director: Emma Rice
Designer: Bill Mitchell
Lighting: Alex Wardle
Sound: Lucy Gaskell
Composer/Musical Director: Stu Barker

2003-07-31 15:31:59