August Strindberg might be finest recognized within the UK for his 1888 play Miss Julie. Though this 1900 play shares sure options with that earlier, naturalist textual content – a realistically introduced enclosed, home state of affairs; three predominant characters; a attainable love triangle – the tone of TheDance of Loss of life is extra mystical, its focus the human situation quite than the consequences of heredity and social conditioning on people.
The extent of the play’s affect on fashionable drama is outstanding; as Michael Billington notes within the programme, the writings of Edward Albee, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre all owe it a debt. This new adaptation by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, as directed by Mehmet Ergen, with its emphasis on arch comedy within the exchanges between warring husband and spouse, suggests one other hyperlink – to the Noël Coward of Personal Lives.
Captain, the spurs-jingling despot, and Alice, bitterly regretting the sacrifice of her performing profession to domesticity and motherhood, have been unhappily married for nearly 30 years. Hilton McRae and Lindsay Duncan (who met in 1985 and have one little one) make investments their characters’ barbed banter with a mix of playfulness and viciousness. The connection is convincing however doesn’t obtain the sense of horror, of dicing with damnation, which imbues Strindberg’s textual content.
Equally, Lenkiewicz’s choice to vary the character Kurt to Katrin dampens the dramatic cost. This long-absent cousin’s arrival introduces hope – that the damaging misalliance might be ended and Alice be liberated from Captain’s tyranny. Nevertheless, within the interval setting (meticulously realised in Grace Sensible’s design), relations between the sexes will not be merely interchangeable: Captain’s bullying of a lady produces a unique impact to his bullying of one other man, as an illustration. Lenkiewicz’s textual content doesn't permit for this; though Emily Bruni brings nice presence to the function, this pivotal character comes throughout as a shadow of its unique.
Finally, Ergen’s manufacturing, whereas it sporadically entertains, skirts the challenges posed by Strindberg’s profound exploration of existence.
The Dance of Loss of life excursions till 23 July
Post a Comment