Review-Hedda Gabler-The Gate-Saturday Matinee 11th October

There’s quite a bit of attention to detail in the Brian Friel’s version of Hedda Gabler, directed by Anna Mackmin. Lez Brotherston’s beautiful grey drawing-room gives off an impression of grim decadence and the feeling is rather cinematic. Although from an utterly different era, the atmosphere is not unlike Elia Kazan’s film version of ‘A Streetcar named Desire’.

As the focal point, actress Justine Mitchell plays the role of Hedda, a 19^th century frustrated housewife who through boredom wishes to manipulate and destroy the lives of those around her. In an effort to appear cool and calculating the character suffers from being slightly one-dimensional. For me she’s actually not really cruel enough. If she were, you would feel something towards her, namely contempt or satisfaction at her ultimate demise. But in the end, which is rather dramatic, you end up feeling apathetic towards her. She’s not quite the larger than life character she is supposed to be.

She is manipulative but she could have been so much crueler. Her idiotic and naïve husband George, played here brilliantly by Peter Hanly, is, on the surface at least, so trusting and loving that he could have been twisted into all sorts of shapes. Instead he is allowed to come and go; and although he is in the play quite a lot, it is only really for comic effect, which at times-although always funny-runs on a bit too long.

John Light as Eilert Loevborg, the focus of many ladies attention, doesn’t do much to demonstrate the reasons for their amorous consideration. And in many respects it is a pity that the sexual tension between Hedda and the Lawyer Brack, although at times somewhat adolescent, wasn’t developed more.

Andrea Irvine as Thea Elvsted is really the stand out performer here. This is in no small part down to her own talent and skill as an actress; but the fact that her character is the most complex of all the characters allows Irvine to play her part with greater depth.

The Gate is a wonderful space. This play is a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend two and a half hours and well worth going to. It just suffers from having too many characters whose complexities aren’t developed enough.

 

 

Metamorphosis-Review-Dublin Theatre Festival (Olympia Theatre Monday 29th September)

At one point, about ten minutes into last night’s performance of Metamorphosis, the audience had a mild and satisfied smile to itself. The smile was induced by the slow realisation that the stage had been transformed. Having looked upon Gregor’s room pinned against a wall, we were suddenly, through a trick of light and brilliant set design, gazing into his room from above.

 

It was an amazingly clever piece of trickery and one that certainly gave the performance some oomph. As we followed Gregor(Gisli Orn Gardarsson) who, having been transformed inexplicably into a beetle of some sort, had to crawl his way around the house; his family’s life gradually continues in the kitchen under his room. Although his adoring sister Grete initially tries to take care of her brother her parents are not interested. Gradually, Grete herself begins to shun Gregor, treating him more and more like an animal than a beloved brother. Throughout, Gregor tries to communicate with his family for whom he was the sole breadwinner but his voice has been transformed into a loud and incomprehensible screech.

 

Over the course of the play, the family’s former hero is dehumanised and becomes referred to as vermin and disgusting. The Nazi overtones are striking and clever. When Gregor’s father, played here by the somewhat shaky (opening night nerves I suspect) Ingvar E Sigurdsson, finds a new job, which involves the wearing of a uniform, the family begin to change. The mother’s former floral attire is replaced with black clothing but most strikingly Grete’s caring and sunny demeanour is replaced by strict respect and punctuality, her innocent school uniform by a sharp grey suit and black leather boots.

 

When a potential lodger, a well to do and handsome man played by Jonathan McGuinness, comes to inspect his would be lodgings the family are beside themselves with admiration. Gregor interrupts them by crashing through the ceiling and the horrified lodger bolts out the door while expressing his disgust. The family draw the only conclusion possible and encouraged by the now frustrated Grete, Gregor’s fate is sealed.

 

 The star of this show, with Grete a close second, was the physically impressive Gardarsson. Although he did have a nice rest for approximately ten minutes during which the family try to sycophantically impress their would be lodger, he spent most of the play hanging from the wall, crawling down stairs or being thumped on the head. Throughout all this suffering he managed to keep the soft and sympathetically selfless character of Gregor alive. Perhaps his role as an actor was not as tough as the rest of the cast but he played to his strengths making his ending all the more potent.

 

This is not a word for word adaption of Kafka’s story but it is well done and stays true to the story’s main themes. And for the set and Gardarsson’s performance it is definitely worth seeing.

Dublin Theatre Festival Preview – As published in September’s Temple Bar

The Cast of 'Black Watch'

By Jonathan deBurca Butler

In 1957 the Dublin Theatre festival opened with Tennessee William’s controversial ‘The Rose Tattoo’.  Garda reports at the time, spoke of some “objectionable passages” and scenes that were “lewd, vulgar and offensive”. Alan Simpson, who ran the Pike theatre with his wife Carolyn Swift, was arrested, somewhat bizarrely, after the show ended its run. The charges against him for his part in “producing for gain an indecent and profane performance”, were eventually dropped but his theatre was ruined and his marriage collapsed due to the pressures surrounding the bad publicity.

It is unlikely that such real life drama will be played out at this year’s festival, and unlikely the authorities, in an effort to protect our morals, end up ruining a marriage. But such is the rough and tumble world of the arts that you just never know.

 The line up for the 2008 Dublin Theatre festival may not prove to be as controversial as the inaugural festival. However, if the (allegedly) increasingly obese, soap-opera obsessed couch potatoes of this fair city decide to get up of their posteriors and go to see one or more of the plays on offer, they should be royally entertained.

Last year was a record year for the festival, taking in over €1million for the first time in its 51-year history. Attendances were up by twenty three per cent on 2006 and the organisers are hoping for a similar turnout this year. Inevitably, as with every sector of Irish life these days, the economy may have a part to play in the number of rumps on stools, but judging by the fact that Michael McDowell’s utopian café culture seems to be still thriving (heck not even the Italians know what all these different Italian coffees are), the festival organisers shouldn’t have too much to worry about.  

One reason to attend this years festival will be the appearance of Vanessa Redgrave in Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. The production, which centres on a woman’s efforts to deal with the sudden death of her husband, is taking place at the Gaiety and is a massive coup for the festival, considering this is only one of three cities where the play is to be staged this year. The 71 year- old star, famous for her roles in films such as Blow up and Venus, has won acclaim for her powerful performance from both the media and her peers and tickets for this show are expected to go quickly.

 Other eyebrow raisers are plays and performances based on the work of Virginia Woolf (Waves), Fyodor Dostoevsky and F.Scott Fitzgerald(Gatz) as well as fresh interpretations of Albert Camus’ ‘Caligula’ and Beckett’s ‘Happy Days’.

But perhaps one of the most intriguing productions of this year’s festival is an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s freakishly dream-like short story ‘Metamorphosis’, a collaboration with Iceland’s Vesturport Theatre Production and the Lyric Hammersmith of London. This darkly decadent treat promises to be very physical and vibrant, using as it does climbing cables and a split stage to heighten the drama and tension; it also features music by Nick Cave and long-time collaborator Warren Ellis.

There are, of course, many home productions to choose from over the two-week period. The Gate Theatre, which is celebrating eighty years this year, is putting on Brian Friel’s new version of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Druid’s Irish premiere of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan directed by Garry Hynes- the first woman to win a Tony award for direction- takes to the stage at the Olympia from the 6^th October, while at the Helix Fishamble are doing a new play by Irish playwright Robert Massey called Rank, which deals with Dublin’s transformation over the last ten years. Including, I assume, our uncanny ability to mispronounce Bruschetta.

The National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Black Watch, based on interviews with soldiers from the regiment of the same name and their time in Iraq, will be staged at the RDS. Having just gone on a sell-out run in Edinburgh, this production is expected to get a lot of attention not least for its strong language and somewhat contentious if relevant subject matter.

 Mark Donford-May’s reworking of Mozart’s The Magic Flute moves the 18^th century opera to a modern township setting in South Africa and offers something a little different for supporters of opera.  CoisCéim Dance Theatre will present Dodgems transforming the O’Reilly Theatre in Belvedere College into a fairground where a real bumper track is the stage for the clashes of lives and personalities that take place during the show.

This year’s festival also includes some workshops and panel discussions. The pick of the bunch is Vanessa Redgrave in conversation Colm Tobin. Perhaps they’ll talk about the development of the lewd, vulgar and offensive in today’s theatre.

Whatever the topic of their discussion, like all the festival, it’s sure to be quite memorable.

By the way the prices vary quite a bit from €20 to €45 but there are student stand-by tickets from about a half hour before the show depending on availability and OAPs also get a discount. Bear in mind that if your booking they’ll charge you €2 per ticket, so book on the net.

Vanessa Redgrave

Be sure to come back September 30th for  a review of Metamorphosis