Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
DramaSoc’s presentation of three short stories portraying insanity demonstrated the creativity of the University of York’s students once again.
The challenge of bringing these nineteenth-century stories into the present day era was superbly met by director Kate Shenton and producer Becca Atkey. With the clever use of projectors, the theme of madness was amplified with provocative imagery, and the medium of a diary effectively transformed into that of a one act play.
The Yellow Wallpaper, penned in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, deals with the descent to psychosis of a woman confined to her room by her controlling husband. The narrator becomes obsessed with the wallpaper of her “prison”, so much so, that she believes a woman is trapped under the paper. Serena Manteghi skilfully narrates this story, despite the challengingly bland script. Her colourful voice captured the audience, managing to transmit her growing madness due to outside forces. However, in comparison to the other two plays, this one was less impressive, and rather limited by the obscure fascination with wallpaper.
Diary of a Madman was written in 1835 by Nikolai Gogol and originally satirised Russian bureaucracy of the time by comparing officialdom to a madhouse. It tells the story of a man living an alternative life inside his head in which he believes he is the King of Spain, whereas he is in fact imprisoned for being a threat to society.
The innovative way in which Joe Hufton performed into a video camera, which projected his face onto three large screens, heightened the atmosphere in the barn. Whilst never looking at the audience directly, he was still able to convey to them his mentally unstable state. The main strength of the play was his ability to entertain with a range of facial expressions and accents. His injection of humour lightened the mood of an otherwise dark trilogy, and contrasted starkly with the other two pieces.
The final play was Edgar Allen Poe’s well-known 1843 work The Tell-Tale Heart. This play deals with the murder and disembodiment of a man with a “vulture eye” by a calm, calculating madman. After hiding the body of the man under the floorboards, the narrator scares himself into believing that the man’s heart is still beating audibly around the room and hands himself over the authorities. Harry de Moraville’s interpretation of such a developed personality was very effective; he showed both the removed nature of his character and his mental instability. Furthermore, the positioning of the audience in the centre of the stage induced a sense of apprehension throughout the barn. With de Moraville standing inches away, and disquieting images flashing upon the projectors on all sides, his madness was unquestionable, despite his constant assertions of sanity.
The grouping of these three plays worked well, and the medium of film successfully brought them into the modern era. A talented cast overcame the difficulties of the one act play, and brought the theme of madness into a very real focus. A word of warning: the images used in Poe’s play are gruesome, perhaps more so than was strictly necessary, but very evocative. Overall an amazing performance, yet again, inside the drama barn.
A Trilogy of Madness will run until Sunday night. Shows begin at 7.30pm at the Drama Barn and tickets are available on the door. Arrive early to avoid disapointment.
You must log in to submit a comment.
