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Showing posts with label Goethe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goethe. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
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Reviewed by David James
Rating: 
Vivaldi Meets Werther: Four Seasons is a highbrow cultural mash-up: combining Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
But director and creator Pamela Schermann doesn't simply stage a play with a Vivaldi soundtrack, more a kind of DNA cross-pollination between the two. For example, female lead Charlotte (Alda Dizdari) is also lead violinist and communicates solely through her instrument. It's a decision that proves extremely appropriate given the misguided attentions of her would-be boyfriend Werther (Samuel Lawrence).
At this point, I have to admit ignorance on my behalf. I'm fairly familiar with The Four Seasons, if only due it to it being probably the best-known violin music in the world. However, I knew absolutely nothing about The Sorrows of Young Werther.
So, here's how it goes down. Werther is a lovelorn guy who becomes obsessed with a woman called Charlotte. His obsession grows and eventually sours as she doesn't return his affections, only for her fiance Albert to return, causing him to collapse into a miserable little pile of sadness and commit suicide.
It's drama with powerful incel energy. In the parlance of our times we see our virgin incel meet a Stacy and develop a terminal case of oneitus. He's quickly friend-zoned and driven to despair when her Chad boyfriend turns up - taking the wimp's way out and becoming an hero.
Though written in 1787, Werther's letters could quite easily be the moany, self-obsessed blog of a million basement-dwelling losers. Perhaps in the late 18th century Werther would have been considered some sort of hero, but in this production he comes across as, in the best-case scenario, a total loser.
All this meant that I found Vivaldi Meets Werther unexpectedly hilarious. Part of this is that the decision to make Charlotte a silent character who only communicates through her instrument completely walls her off from any real communication with Werther. For the vast majority of the show Charlotte occupies the same area as the rest of the string players, leaving Werther isolated in the centre of the stage. This renders his affection totally unreciprocated, making his love appear more delusional than it ordinarily would.
The one thing Charlotte does show any feelings for is her instrument, with Dizdari dancing, smiling and cradling it like a newborn. Even the one direct interaction she has with Werther, where she makes him kiss a canary and then feeds it seed from her mouth, sounds like she's making fun of him in a roundabout way. It all combines to make the guy an inherently unsympathetic character, and by the time he's offing himself you sense that nothing of value will be lost.
The choice of The Four Seasons to accompany Werther's misery quickly feels more than a touch sadistic, given that they're joyful music focussed on vitality, community and the harmony of nature. But Werther just doesn't get it, ignoring the world and its delights to lose himself in a mostly imagined version of a woman who doesn't give a crap about him.
It makes Vivaldi Meets Werther a wickedly good time. The music is performed with precision, energy and passion - with Dizdari a brilliant performer and violinist. And Samuel Lawrence is a comically useless sadsack who it's difficult to feel sorry for.
Vivaldi Meets Werther: Four Seasons is at the Bridewell Theatre as part of Opera in the City Festival 2019 until 30th August. Tickets here.
Photos by Time Zone Theatre
Friday, June 19, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
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You can't fault Iphigenia for being a bit glum. Her Dad Agamemnon, an A-lister of Greek Mythology, was all set to offer her as a human sacrifice. Escaping by way of divine intervention she now finds herself stuck in Tauris, unhappily working as a Priestess in Diana's temple and being amorously pursued by King Thoas, who she's doing her best to put in the friend-zone.
King Thoas isn't best pleased, threatening to reinstate the old tradition of human sacrifice, and forcing Iphigenia to wield the knife. Things look bad, though a ray of light arrives in the form of Iphiena's long lost brother Orestes and their cousin Pylades. They reveal that everything's gone a bit Jeremy Kyle back home in Mycenae. Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, a bit miffed that he was prepared to murder their daughter, killed her husband. In turn, her children (even more miffed) killed her. Now Orestes is cursed - pursued by the Furies - his only chance to fulfil a challenge of the gods and swipe a statue of Diana from a temple, which is why he's here.
Sounds pretty exciting huh? Well, none of that actually happens in this play. This is Goethe's 1779 adaptation of Euripedes 414BCE play, written with an emphasis on poetic language, emotional intensity and philosophical and moral explorations.
Okay, I've got to get something out of the way. It gives me no great pleasure to say it and it's a criticism that I don't ever like levelling at a piece of theatre. To say it says as much about me as it does about the play, particularly as Goethe is considered a titan of literature. But here we go: Iphigenia in Tauris is boring. Really, really goddamn boring.
I'd never heard of the play before this production, and frankly I can see why. Essentially a series of long-winded, static duologues, the characters go on and on in poetic metre that rapidly approaches incomprehensibility. The language is overwrought, self-indulgent and bulging with self importance. As the characters launch into complex flights of poetic embellishment (full of obscure references to Greek mythology) I felt my eyes glaze over, the dialogue collapsing into a word salad.
It'd take an astonishingly talented creative force to pummel this creaky old thing into anything remotely palatable, and this production just isn't up to the task. Perhaps as if to contrast the florid language, the set and costume design is austere to the point of non-existence. The 'half theatre/half archaeological dig' nature of the Rose resists elaborate stagecraft, but an empty, flatly lit stage decorated only by a white sheet doesn't exactly excite the eye.
Granted, much appreciated efforts are made to exploit the full space. An altar to Diana is set up at the far back of the room, and the characters periodically scamper across the distant earthern floor. This gives rise to one of the few truly successful dramatic moments; the opening in which an ethereal Iphigenia emerges from the shadows and processes towards us, filling the theatre with her atmospheric voice.
I can't really fault the cast too much either, finding myself feeling slightly sorry for them. You can see every dramatic sinew strain as they delve through the soupy dialogue trying to find something - anything - relatable to a modern audience. They're fighting a doomed battle and often, despite their obvious efforts, they end up simply reciting the play. Suzanne Marie as Iphigenia comes out looking best, though even she frequently struggles to locate any glimmer of humanity buried within this mannered poetry.
Maybe if you were a scholar of Greek mythology or a particularly big fan of Goethe you'd enjoy this. Otherwise I wouldn't bother: becoming emotionally involved in Iphigenia in Tauris is next to impossible. Being intellectually involved is a little more achievable, though not without enormous effort. And frankly, it's not worth it.
★★
Iphigenia in Tauris is at the Rose Playhouse until 4th July 2015. Tickets here.
Photos by Lidia Crisafulli
Photos by Lidia Crisafulli
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