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Paris
Theatre Diary
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March 2006 Due to circumstances beyond his and our control, John's Paris Diary is late this month. Apologies!
Utterly schizophrenic is perhaps the only way to describe the late Jacobean shocker The Changeling at the Théâtre Les Gémeaux. In the tale of Alicantean noblewoman Beatrice and her trio of lovers, there is only marginally less blood than your average Webster. Writing duo William Rowley and Thomas Middleton clearly decided that this too gory to stand alone. Their solution: a tentatively linked side-comedy set in a lunatic asylum. It's a headache for any director. Not for Cheek by Jowl's founder and artistic director Declan Donnellen though. He links the two plots with a simple device. A flick of the lights, and the cast switches en-masse to playing incarcerated madmen. Rowley and Middleton's narrative schism is thus bridged with moments of real panache. Beatrice's wedding scene plays host to the most daring of these switches. As the bride, groom and guests dance in celebration, they slowly metamorphose into insane lunatics. From the midst of these jiggling fools emerges the bloodied ghost of Beatrice's first betrothed, murdered on her orders. It's a chilling moment. Unfortunately, the actors' performances didn't match the power of Donnellen's staging. Olivia Williams' Beatrice annoyed throughout, hamming things up to the nines, and the scrawny Tom Hiddleston also looked distinctly out of place as her lover. Hiddleston has a certain electricity, but in this case he was utterly miscast. Too young, too RADA, and projecting about as much masculinity as Graham Norton. One performance however did stand out: Will Keen as the lust-driven servant De Flores. A trembling, infatuated schoolboy, a ravenous murdering dog and a cold hearted assassin - Keen joyfully jumped between all these and more. What is more, he alone filled the Jacobean verse with texture, imagination and humanity. Perhaps the rest of the cast will catch up in time for their Barbican premiere.
Pray though that the appalling Katherine Barker never touches British Shores. Quite frankly, the Théâtre de la Ville should be ashamed of this bloated, confused and utterly torturous piece of non-drama. On paper, the story of Katherine Barker and her Clockwork Orange-inspired sons looks like the stuff of modern day tragedy. Hounded from community to community, chased by the police, the family ends life in a defiant act of group suicide. On stage though, writer Jean Audureau and director Serge Tranvouez have created nothing short of an embarrassing mess. Audureau's script meanders over a period of several decades, never finding a compelling chord of narrative, and Tranvouez's sub-Brechtian direction sucks all life from whatever is left. Like many French directors, Tranvouez seems to think that white-faced, senselessly gesticulating actors; monotone narrators and greyscale set designs are ever so daring. They're just boring. Most of the audience did their best to leave before the show ended. One unfortunate actor, trying to exit via the house, had to join the queue.
Had they marched over to the Marigny Theatre though, they would have caught something far more worthwhile, a quite gripping version of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. In Didier Long's new production, Strindberg's masterpiece of seduction and betrayal retained all its searing power. Indeed, the sparring between leads Emilie Dequenne and Bruno Wolkowitch was a visceral delight. As the pimpled heroine, Dequenne shone in her mélange of spoilt brat and innocent child. She was no match, however, for Wolkowitch's ruthless Jean. At first dutifully acquiescing to his mistress Miss Julie's whims, Wolkowitch's gradual seizure of power was as calculated as it was cruel. His mistress deflowered, he then cast her aside like a spent toy. Dequenne, in desperation, clung to her former seat of power: "Once a valet, always a valet". By now though, Wolkowitch's mouth and lips were stained blood-red with the wine of her father. His reply hit home like a heavyweight roundhouse: "once a whore, always a whore". And like Will Keen as De Flores, Wolkowitch remained utterly beautiful while playing this monster. Tall, strong and dignified, he never lost his humanity, regardless of the depths to which his character fell. He played no pantomime villain and left us with no easy judgements. It was a stunning performance. The Changeling
Katherine Barker Miss Julie Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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