MIRACLE

[reviewed for The Public Reviews]

Ruby in the Dust

Leicester Square Theatre

07.01.10

Deep in the basement – beneath Notre Dame de France, appropriately - a dusty crypt has been created. Feathers and leafmould litter the floor. “A pigsty”, exclaims Salome as she enters the darkened space.

There's a melancholy accordeon playing in a corner. On the stairs, a fortune-teller is a clue that the circus is in town, a razzmatazz rival to the production of Everyman that Dante Du Pre has brought to this remote country town.

Reza de Wet's play was originally written in Afrikaans, and set in her native South Africa. Linnie Reedman's spare but powerful production, for the enterprising Ruby in the Dust theatre company, has removed some of the African references, though one is still reminded that this is how Afrikaans theatre began, on the dusty road with fit-up tours.

The fictional company, “servants of a sacred art”, is run by Dante and his wife Salome, with stage-struck youngsters whom his charisma has drawn in along the way. Innocence and experience.

And that contrast was evident in the acting company, too. Rowan Schlosberg was a dark, brooding Abel, the Hamlet and the Everyman, though nothing hinted that he would be even adequate in those roles. His Lenie, destined to end like Ophelia in a willow brook, was Kate Colebrook, in a tender, moving performance, especially when she obsessively imagines leaving town by the morning train. Actor musician Christopher Dingli was a significant presence as the idealist Antoine. The two veteran thesps – Sir and Her Ladyship if you like – were in the safe hands of Tim Woodward and Susannah York. They both had superb monologues in Act Two, and their stormy relationship was one of the strengths of the piece. York's lament for her lost frocks, her faith in her faded photograph, were wonderful moments.

De Wet writes another great female role for Anna, the enigmatic Lady Bountiful who comes out of the darkness, seeking to supplant Lenie in the company and in Abel's affections. Lynne Miller caught the mood exactly, and her calm but sinister presence cast a chill over the crypt.

The play, heavy with significance and symbolism, does not always translate well, and the performances sometimes lacked polish. But this revival, which began before Christmas in a less intimate crypt, was an absorbing exploration of the mystery of the drama and the heartless world of the theatre.

this review first appeared on The Public Reviews

THE NATIVITY

Tony Harrison's Mystery Play

Chelmsford Cathedral

Jim Hutchon was in the nave...

Alison Woollard’s truly epic production of Tony Harrison’s adaptation of the medieval mystery plays marks two welcome returns. The return of drama to the Cathedral since the demise of the Festival, and the return, after a 450-year interval, of the Chelmsford Cycle of mystery plays. Staged in the round with the audience on three sides surrounding the nave, Brian Greatrex’s setting was grand and imposing, and utterly in character with the fine old building housing it.

Also in character was a large cast of convincing actors who took us through key scenes from the Old Testament up to the time of the Nativity, from a spectacular Creation, with God creating the angels, then day, night and the animals, before casting out Lucifer. Adam and Eve in Paradise - then banished for succumbing to Lucifer’s temptation - give way to the tale of Cain and Abel. A giant evocation of Noah’s Ark takes centre stage, followed by the heart-rending tale of Abraham and Isaac, before Joseph has his suspicions of his wife’s fidelity allayed by the Annunciation, and Jesus is born.

Successive scenes depict the visits of the shepherds and the kings, and the paranoia of Herod, who, having murdered all the male babies around, is himself visited by death.

The language is simple and direct, and the colour and pageant of these ‘plays within the play’ must have had a truly staggering impact on illiterate medieval peasants, whose only knowledge of the Bible was the dread fire and brimstone of the priest.

Musical Director Eric Witham’s compositions, and the band and choir he created for the occasion provided an evocative accompaniment to this, one of the highlights of Chelmsford's drama this year.

Glyn Paflin's Church Times review

link to my mini-site about the production