Blackbird
By David Harrower
King's Theatre
*****
The 2005 Edinburgh International Festival has certainly got off with
a bang. David Harrower's two-hour two-hander will prove controversial
in the extreme and has the capacity to both shock and move audiences.
Roger Allam (Willy Brandt in Democracy) and film regular Jodhi
May star as a mis-matched couple who had an affair fifteen years ago
and have not subsequently met. Nothing unusual there.
The surprise is that at the time, Una was not yet even a teenager.
Therefore, Ray (or Peter as he has become) spent the first four years
of their separation imprisoned. Since then though, he has built a
successful new life under his pseudonym.
Renowned German director Peter Stein has created a naturalistic production
in which the verbal rhythms and silences are reminiscent of Pinter.
The debates between the pair have a touch of Sir David Hare's tale
of past love Skylight about them, especially as on this occasion,
Allam sounds rather like Sir Michael Gambon.
The heavily symbolic set has impossible amounts of rubbish strewn
around until the final cathartic scene, which features an amazing
coup de théâtre, courtesy of designer, Ferdinand Wögerbauer.
Stein builds the pace slowly as the cowed man and the haunted woman
relive their past. While both are still affected and have been since
the day that they were parted, their experiences are very different.
While Ray paid for his misdemeanours in jail and then as a pariah
in the community, Una did not even move house and suffered as much
or possibly more, as a twelve-year-old who had broken societal norms.
The subject matter is shocking but the writer handles it deftly,
exploring the moral issues but not forgetting that, for better or
worse, young girls do develop crushes on teachers or their fathers'
friends and sometimes these lead to the front page of the tabloids.
The acting is superlative as power shifts backwards and forwards.
The details of the love affair - and it was love on both sides - spill
out in mutual recollection, with changed emphasis between the two
versions.
The whole builds towards a denouement as inevitable as in any Greek
tragedy. Then Harrower has a couple more surprises in store, possibly
over-egging his delicate cake by eschewing the stark simplicity that
makes this an unforgettable production.
Blackbird has a short run in the Festival and it very much
deserves to be seen elsewhere and by many more people than will have
the chance to do so in Edinburgh. The West End or even New York could
beckon.
Philip Fisher
Curlew River
By Benjamin Britten, with libretto by William Plomer
Royal Lyceum Theatre
****
Olivier Py manages the unusual combination of director and lighting
designer in this spectacular production of Britten's chamber opera
created from a Japanese Noh play. This double role works as, together
with set and costume designer Pierre-André Weitz, Py creates
some haunting visual images.
It is not immediately apparent, but the set gradually recedes as
the plot develops. It starts as a two-level glittery construction
that is reminiscent of a silver church organ. Unusually, the seven
piece orchestra are placed on the higher level with the performers
primarily beneath.
Benjamin Britten, with the assistance of William Plomer, has taken
the Noh parable of Sumidagawa and translated it into a middle ages
church parable set in his home Fenlands of East Anglia.
Using liturgical music and often ritualised movement, this small-scale
opera tells the simple tale of a madwoman, driven there by the loss
of her beloved son, who was kidnapped and taken across the titular
river. This is all apparently played out by a group of monks, so that
the madwoman is acted by a man, albeit one with a beautiful voice.
The undoubted star is Toby Spence who gives an emotive acting performance
as the woman searching for her son. His red-painted face is offset
by the white of the ferryman, played by William Dazeley, who will
both take her across the river and tell her the tale of her son's
abduction and death. On their journey, they are accompanied by a traveller,
Neal Davies, and the pick of the singing comes from these three.
Inevitably, the bad man, drawn from the chorus has a sinister, black
face. His 12-year-old victim, in this performance, was played by the
angelically-voiced Tom Baird. His moment of glory comes at the end
as the boy's spirit releases his mother from her torment.
Britten's work is a haunting chamber opera that looks great in Olivier
Py's vision. The music is rarely melodic but the mini-orchestra is
particularly interesting for Catrin Finch on the harp and Adrian Spillett's
percussion and 18-year-old flautist, Adam Walker. They all help to
create the haunting atmosphere that hangs over the tragic Curlew River.
Philip Fisher
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