Written and performed by Chris Brannick and Karen Kirkup, I Believe in One Bach is a psychological drama following Alan Gottelib, a 2nd violinist being slowly edged out of the orchestra as his skill and sanity are waning away. It’s a play inspired by, imbued with and somewhat structured and built around Bach’s triumphant and superlative Mass in B Minor. It’s through Bach, and specifically this setting of the Mass Ordinary, that Gottleib views the world.
Brannick plays Gottleib with the tragic air of a man consumed with a deep love of music but a blindness to the rest of the material world around him. Kirkup takes the place of the narrator as well as various other figures in Gottleib’s life and the musical world around him.
If anything, this play reaches further than it can easily grasp. While the simple white-box prop staging adds to the sense of church stones, against the stark darkness of the stage, the actors seemed a little uncomfortable with the acting around them, particularly notable when moving them, or when Brannick repeatedly fiddled with a wonky catch on his violin box between scenes rather than perhaps working it into the role as yet another indication of Gottleib’s general sense of disrepair.
There was also a sense of distance and not quite enough palpable emotion to really sell what was happening onstage. It’s a tragic tale, and one which touches on the tragedy of death, as well as the sorrow and raging angers of grief, but the tone of the play never lands for that, and it all rings slightly hollow when it should be genuinely sad.
And yet, in its moments of passion, it’s a triumphant and soaring experience. The genuine love of the music shines all through the production. It’s also unexpectedly funny at points, as the script is as peppered with orchestral in-jokes as it is with spots of Latin. It took Bach his entire life to craft the Mass in B Minor; Brannick and Kirkup certainly shouldn't feel bad having paid a kind and loving homage to it in the theatrical medium.