Frankenstein : National Theatre
****
The National Theatre’s Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle, is a stunning spectacle from start to finish.
From the moment the “creature” erupts onto the stage the shows is superb in each and every aspect. A huge light installation on the ceiling is used to great affect, both to change the mood on stage and to convey the electricity that brings the creature to life. This light is almost blinding in its brilliance, and reflects the genius and the danger of Frankenstein’s science.
A train crashes onto the stage, and the screaming and shouting masked people onboard attack the “creature” as sparks fly from underneath the wheels.This portrayal of the coming industrial age, with its noise, destruction, violence and chaos is in stark contrast to the way in which nature is portrayed.
As the “creature” develops an understanding of the natural world, he finds joy in the changing seasons; the rain, snow, sun, fire, and the new life which blossoms in the spring. Even though his existence goes against all the rules of nature, it is amongst the natural world that he is safest. And although he was created by the hand of a man, it is mankind that is disgusted by him, and mankind that wishes to destroy him.
This production reinforces the idea of the “creature” as a tabula rasa or a blank slate which is shaped and influenced by his experiences of society. Society shows him only violence, hate and loathing, and he therefore learns to hate, hurt and loathe. But more than merely recreating Mary Shelley’s “creature”, this production brings a real humanity to the character and challenges our assumptions about the “creature”. This is due in no small part to Benedict Cumberbatch’s outstanding performance as the “creature”.
Cumberbatch brings an emotional depth to the character, this is not the “creature” seen in horror films with a bolt between his ears, but a real human being. An artificial human being, but a human being nontheless. A “creature” that feels pain, love, jealousy, anger, hate and kindness.
The “creature” is put at the very heart of this production, this is the creature’s story, not Frankenstein’s. This gives Cumberbatch the opportunity to truly devleop the “creature’s character and mannerisms, and allows the audience to understand him as a character of flesh and blood, rather than merely a horror charicature.
The story of Frankenstein’s “creature” is as relevant now as it has ever been because fundamentally it is a tale of humanity and morality. It portrays society’s inability to deal with diversity and difference, the continual fear of the “other”, and man’s duty to his fellow man. Or more precisely Frankenstein’s duty and responsibility as creator of the “creature”. Frankenstein is ultimately responsible for the “creature”. The “creature’s crimes are also Frankenstein’s crimes.
This is the matter that gives the production its meaning – the indestructable ties between Frankenstein and the “creature”. The “creature” hates Frankenstein, but is also completely dependent on him, and ultimately loves him. Whilst Frankenstein’s revulsion towards his creation cannot hide his pride and vanity.
Frankenstein, is without doubt, a truly amazing production.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Outdoors: Aberystwyth
Outdoors: Aberystwyth
**
Outdoors, a journey through the narrow moonlit streets of Aberystwyth, created by National Theatre Wales and the alternative German theatre company Rimini Protokoll, sends its tiny audience of twelve tramping the cobbles and paving stones of the town with no more than an IPod screen and a pair of earphones.
The experience -it cannot in all honesty be called a “performance”- asks its audience to follow the paths of various members of Aberystwyth’s Heartsong Choir around the town. This should allow us to engage with the choir members: their personalities, lives and stories. However, due to the fact that each audience member is sent on a solo journey with no more than the technological wizardry for company, it is an isolating, lonely experience. The audience only fleetingly interact with each other, and the choir members are seen in the flesh only at the very end of Outdoors.
T
his production could have been an opportunity to guide a visitor through the nooks and crannies of Aberystwyth and reveal those hidden stories that are ignored in the tourist information brochures. However, far from succeeding in opening our eyes to a different Aberystwyth to that seen on postcards and pamphlets, Outdoors merely repeats the tired old clichés of the prom, the pier and the pubs. In fact, the experience could have been a journey around any medium-sized seaside town in Britain.
The audience was given very little insight into the real Aberystwyth: its history, its residents and its everyday goings-on. In fact the journey was no more than an aimless walk along the same handful of streets, looking at the same buildings over and over again. The on-screen instructions of various choir members took the audience to the promenade on the town’s magnificent seafront, but made very ineffective use of this commanding location. At times I was left staring out over the dark, rough, menacing sea, for minutes on end. These pointless pit-stops in the journey were not merely to be had at the prom, but throughout the production. Outside the majestic old college I was left staring blankly at a close up screen-shot of a red sign for what felt like an eternity and lost interest outside the Tourist Information Centre as I was forced to stare at yet another blank red screen.
Outdoors failed to bring the choir members to life even though the audience were following their every move around the town. This was due not only to the barrier created by the use of the iPod which seemed artificial and unnatural, but also to the way in which they chose to present themselves and their lives in Aberystwyth. The choir members discussed their employment, education, the techniques used by the choir to learn new material and their position within the choir, but very few were willing to give a deeper insight into their lives. The audience learnt nothing of their hopes, ambitions, fears and disappointments- those things that make us who we are.
The traipse finally came to an end at the choir’s rehearsal. This could, at last, have allowed for some meaningful interaction between the audience and the choir members, but this failed to materialise as the audience was instructed to sit silently listening to the choir finishing its last few songs. This felt as if we were uninvited guests disrupting the choir’s rehearsal, rather than giving the audience an opportunity to engage with the members.
The great failure of Outdoors was its lack of depth and its willingness to sweep superficially along the surface of both Aberystwyth and the lives of the choir members. For this reason, at the end of the journey the feeling was one of deflation and disappointment.
**
Outdoors, a journey through the narrow moonlit streets of Aberystwyth, created by National Theatre Wales and the alternative German theatre company Rimini Protokoll, sends its tiny audience of twelve tramping the cobbles and paving stones of the town with no more than an IPod screen and a pair of earphones.
The experience -it cannot in all honesty be called a “performance”- asks its audience to follow the paths of various members of Aberystwyth’s Heartsong Choir around the town. This should allow us to engage with the choir members: their personalities, lives and stories. However, due to the fact that each audience member is sent on a solo journey with no more than the technological wizardry for company, it is an isolating, lonely experience. The audience only fleetingly interact with each other, and the choir members are seen in the flesh only at the very end of Outdoors.
T
his production could have been an opportunity to guide a visitor through the nooks and crannies of Aberystwyth and reveal those hidden stories that are ignored in the tourist information brochures. However, far from succeeding in opening our eyes to a different Aberystwyth to that seen on postcards and pamphlets, Outdoors merely repeats the tired old clichés of the prom, the pier and the pubs. In fact, the experience could have been a journey around any medium-sized seaside town in Britain.
The audience was given very little insight into the real Aberystwyth: its history, its residents and its everyday goings-on. In fact the journey was no more than an aimless walk along the same handful of streets, looking at the same buildings over and over again. The on-screen instructions of various choir members took the audience to the promenade on the town’s magnificent seafront, but made very ineffective use of this commanding location. At times I was left staring out over the dark, rough, menacing sea, for minutes on end. These pointless pit-stops in the journey were not merely to be had at the prom, but throughout the production. Outside the majestic old college I was left staring blankly at a close up screen-shot of a red sign for what felt like an eternity and lost interest outside the Tourist Information Centre as I was forced to stare at yet another blank red screen.
Outdoors failed to bring the choir members to life even though the audience were following their every move around the town. This was due not only to the barrier created by the use of the iPod which seemed artificial and unnatural, but also to the way in which they chose to present themselves and their lives in Aberystwyth. The choir members discussed their employment, education, the techniques used by the choir to learn new material and their position within the choir, but very few were willing to give a deeper insight into their lives. The audience learnt nothing of their hopes, ambitions, fears and disappointments- those things that make us who we are.
The traipse finally came to an end at the choir’s rehearsal. This could, at last, have allowed for some meaningful interaction between the audience and the choir members, but this failed to materialise as the audience was instructed to sit silently listening to the choir finishing its last few songs. This felt as if we were uninvited guests disrupting the choir’s rehearsal, rather than giving the audience an opportunity to engage with the members.
The great failure of Outdoors was its lack of depth and its willingness to sweep superficially along the surface of both Aberystwyth and the lives of the choir members. For this reason, at the end of the journey the feeling was one of deflation and disappointment.
Mundo Paralelo : Milford Haven
Mundo Paralelo : Milford Haven
***
National Theatre Wales’s latest production, Mundo Paralelo, is a ground-breaking collaboration with NoFitState circus company. This ambitious show sees the hectic high-wire acrobatics and the mind-bending magic of the circus transported from the high top to the auditorium.
Juggling, tigh rope walking, trapeze artists and magicians are no longer the preserve of sticky fingered, candy floss eating children in seaside resorts, but a mainstay of a constantly developing and evolving art-form. But can contemporary circus succeed in portraying real, well-rounded characters rather than mere caricatures? Does it have the emotional intensity to develop a narrative? Or is it merely a dazzling distraction with no real depth?
The production is visually stunning from start to end. As the curtain rises masked black figures on the stage and figures descending from the ceiling above the audience with fibre-optic lights covering their faces show a clear intent to move away from the cute and comfortable world of the traditional circus.
This is followed by further superb spectacles which stretch the stage to its limits: an acrobat hesitates before jumping from a window suspended from the ceiling, a trapeze artist flies higher and higher, and yet still higher, until its seems inevitable that she will collide with the very structure of the theatre and a juggler contorting in a maze of twists, turns and tricks.
The show sparkles as a host of trapdoors on the stage are used both cleverly and playfully to suggest a parallel world below. This is a world full of contrast between fragile beauty and cruel darkness. A world of bitter sweet courtship rituals between a playful acrobatic ladder performer and a stubborn, independent-minded rope artist. A world of sadness and disappointment where a magician struggles to charm the object of his affections despite his remarkable gift; turning water into glass globes, and making these globes disappear into thin air.
Mundo Paraleo’s appeal lies in its departure from our rose-tinted memories of the circus and its willingness to portray a darkness which is never far from the surface of its parallel world. Following an acrobatic argument between two sleek, almost shape-shifting twins, a curtain is pulled aside to reveal one lying dead with a knife in her back. Throughout the show a menacing, ring-master figure, controls the action on stage; acting as a puppeteer as the juggler does his bidding, violently pulling the high-wire to pieces as the acrobat displays her skills and forcing the trapeze artist to swing higher and higher.
The production attempts to distant itself from the old-fashioned end of the pier world of the circus by drawing the audience into its own wonderful parallel world. This is a complex, dark world far removed from that of the top- hat wearing ring master and dancing ponies. However, this fresh outlook on the circus is not completely engaging.
We are treated to a collection of snapshots of the parallel world, rather than a complete, well-rounded portrayal, with a structured narrative. The snapshots are undoubtedly well executed, but the lack of any real narrative cohesion or carefully crafted characters means that the production feels like little more than an accomplished circus performance, rather than a fully-fledged piece of theatre.
***
National Theatre Wales’s latest production, Mundo Paralelo, is a ground-breaking collaboration with NoFitState circus company. This ambitious show sees the hectic high-wire acrobatics and the mind-bending magic of the circus transported from the high top to the auditorium.
Juggling, tigh rope walking, trapeze artists and magicians are no longer the preserve of sticky fingered, candy floss eating children in seaside resorts, but a mainstay of a constantly developing and evolving art-form. But can contemporary circus succeed in portraying real, well-rounded characters rather than mere caricatures? Does it have the emotional intensity to develop a narrative? Or is it merely a dazzling distraction with no real depth?
The production is visually stunning from start to end. As the curtain rises masked black figures on the stage and figures descending from the ceiling above the audience with fibre-optic lights covering their faces show a clear intent to move away from the cute and comfortable world of the traditional circus.
This is followed by further superb spectacles which stretch the stage to its limits: an acrobat hesitates before jumping from a window suspended from the ceiling, a trapeze artist flies higher and higher, and yet still higher, until its seems inevitable that she will collide with the very structure of the theatre and a juggler contorting in a maze of twists, turns and tricks.
The show sparkles as a host of trapdoors on the stage are used both cleverly and playfully to suggest a parallel world below. This is a world full of contrast between fragile beauty and cruel darkness. A world of bitter sweet courtship rituals between a playful acrobatic ladder performer and a stubborn, independent-minded rope artist. A world of sadness and disappointment where a magician struggles to charm the object of his affections despite his remarkable gift; turning water into glass globes, and making these globes disappear into thin air.
Mundo Paraleo’s appeal lies in its departure from our rose-tinted memories of the circus and its willingness to portray a darkness which is never far from the surface of its parallel world. Following an acrobatic argument between two sleek, almost shape-shifting twins, a curtain is pulled aside to reveal one lying dead with a knife in her back. Throughout the show a menacing, ring-master figure, controls the action on stage; acting as a puppeteer as the juggler does his bidding, violently pulling the high-wire to pieces as the acrobat displays her skills and forcing the trapeze artist to swing higher and higher.
The production attempts to distant itself from the old-fashioned end of the pier world of the circus by drawing the audience into its own wonderful parallel world. This is a complex, dark world far removed from that of the top- hat wearing ring master and dancing ponies. However, this fresh outlook on the circus is not completely engaging.
We are treated to a collection of snapshots of the parallel world, rather than a complete, well-rounded portrayal, with a structured narrative. The snapshots are undoubtedly well executed, but the lack of any real narrative cohesion or carefully crafted characters means that the production feels like little more than an accomplished circus performance, rather than a fully-fledged piece of theatre.
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