Pirandello’s 1921 play, in which the six characters of the title invade a rehearsal claiming that they have been discarded by their creator and demanding that the actors resolve their tragic story, is a potent concept but I’ve yet to see it pulled off on stage. Rupert Goold and Ben Power, who have already combined the Chapman Brothers with ‘Dr Faustus’, now go even further with a dazzling version of Pirandello’s play in which the characters arrive in an editing suite where Noma Dumezweni’s producer is struggling to create a documentary out of a terminally ill boy’s trip to Denmark to commit suicide. Topically (and there are references to Peter ‘A Year with the Queen’ Fincham), she and her colleagues are wrestling with trying to create something that is both dramatic and truthful.
Who is the real thing? The author’s characters? The Dignitas (pro-assisted suicide) doctor on screen? The actors hired for dramatic reconstructions? Or the producer who at the end is filmed wandering backstage and even into ‘Les Misérables’ next door? It’s dizzying stuff and Goold’s huge talent as a director is to make ideas sexy. There are moments of tension when you can feel the whole audience holding its breath, most especially when Ian McDiarmid’s sinister father transforms his stepdaughter into a Lolita-like sex object. They are interrupted by his ex-wife who unexpectedly bursts into an operatic aria, exposing her emotional pain more effectively than any documentary could.
It’s not all perfect. The production drifts in the final 20 minutes in which Goold and Power can’t resist stretching the reality concept until the elastic breaks. Consequently, the last scene, strongly influenced by Robert Lepage, is not as moving as it might be. Even so, after the summer doldrums, the autumn season has begun with a bang.
You have to realise that Time Out is one of those publications where the better the review the worse it's going to be when you get there.
I've just been to see this production. It's dire, despite a marvellous cast. It's a fatuous, ill thought out reworking of a subtle and funny play. Trendiness drips from it - hence the good review above. But the emporer is stark bollock naked - as witnessed by a house that was barely a tenth full only two weeks after opening.
Metropolitan, self-indulgent media art with a capital F at its worst.
The understudy was on when I saw this and asked for a line 3 times! I think if you see the full cast it'd be a good show, but without a strong lead man this was a bit a of chaotic let down! The show was 25 minutes too long, and full of unnecessary add ons, which made it messy and a little complicated. There were some inspired moments though, as you would expect from Headlong. I'd recommend seeing it (as long as all cast are present!) because it is a good example of an adventurous performance, although it would have been much more at home in Hammersmith.
2 comments
You have to realise that Time Out is one of those publications where the better the review the worse it's going to be when you get there.
I've just been to see this production. It's dire, despite a marvellous cast. It's a fatuous, ill thought out reworking of a subtle and funny play. Trendiness drips from it - hence the good review above. But the emporer is stark bollock naked - as witnessed by a house that was barely a tenth full only two weeks after opening.
Metropolitan, self-indulgent media art with a capital F at its worst.
The understudy was on when I saw this and asked for a line 3 times! I think if you see the full cast it'd be a good show, but without a strong lead man this was a bit a of chaotic let down! The show was 25 minutes too long, and full of unnecessary add ons, which made it messy and a little complicated. There were some inspired moments though, as you would expect from Headlong. I'd recommend seeing it (as long as all cast are present!) because it is a good example of an adventurous performance, although it would have been much more at home in Hammersmith.