Low Down
An astounding achievement. Shakespeare's four greatest tragedies - not reduced, as such, but pared to the bones, so that only the scenes with the protagonists present are performed. We see Hamlet's experiences only, we see Macbeth's dilemma, we live Othello's paranoia, we breathe Lear's despair. Performed along Japanese-influenced minimalist lines, these three actors perform a fantastic breadth of characters in a production that is at one and the same time the best essay about, and one of the best performances of, Shakespeare's tragedies I can imagine.
Review
The plays, each cut down to a little over an hour, are performed in the order Hamlet-Macbeth-Othello-Lear over six hours starting at noon every day. Carefully edited, the plays contain only the scenes with the protagonist present, re-interpreting them as very personal studies of tragedy. Some of the scenes change order, too, to bring certain motifs to light and clarify certain interpretations. None of this is heavy-handed, however; each play seems natural, as if this is how the play has always been, sans unnecessary embellishments. The minimalist concept behind the performance has its roots in Japanese theatre; each play is sectioned into three movements, "Jo", "Ha", and "Kyu", which the program explains comes from the Japanese "Noh" style of performance, and represents the aesthetic of, "a small stream that becomes a river that ends as a waterfall crashing, finally, into a still pond."
The performance space is a large square of red carpet, on three sides of which sit the audience, behind tables with candles. On the fourth side sit cast members not currently in a scene, legs crossed, almost meditative. Props are limited to bare wooden staves and a series of coloured scarves, which denote characterisation. These scarves are a very clever device. When the character is alive, the scarf identifies him, represents him. When that character dies, the scarf becomes the body, the imagery astonishingly poignant in its frailty. Every aspect of the production is as beautifully judged as this. The beauty of the language and the performance are brought effortlessly to the fore; and, wow. What a performance. This is an absolutely stunning cast. William Mann, who adapted the plays himself, is faced with four of the most complex parts ever written for the stage, and rises to the challenge with blinding aplomb and energy, as well as a razor-sharp instinct for transmitting meaning. Hayley Roberts and Christopher Lynch, his supporting cast, leap between characters perfectly and seamlessly, each intricately imagined and impeccably performed.
I began to suspect that the single weak link in the production was, in actuality, me. I didn't know some of the plays as well as I liked, and therefore there were many interesting devices that passed me by. My own favourite of the plays was Hamlet, because, it being the play I know best, it was the play that truly allowed me to see just how clever Mann has been in reworking them. They have been realised as intimate, character-driven, intense, personal dramas, but some of them might be mystifying without a cursory knowledge of the plot. If you didn't know that Iago was plotting to deceive Othello, for example, his betrayal comes very suddenly and unexpectedly. Having said that, even King Lear, the play I am, to my regret, the least familiar with, was absolutely fantastic. Roberts' Foole displays aspects both of ancient, elemental wisdom and energy with a delightful innocence, and Mann plays the ageing Lear with as much accuracy as he does the youthful Hamlet. All the plays are equally gripping. Not once, I realised at the end, in six hours did I look at my watch.
It must be mentioned that it is very long. Four extremely powerful tragedies, made all the more so by the searing intimacy of the performance. This is not bitesize theatre. What it is is absolutely wonderful. Violently intense, unbelievably powerful, staggeringly clever, this is stunningly effective theatre.
Reviewed by NWoolf 5 Aug 08
Website :
www.chambershakespeare.com
