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.
Like most students, apart from the den of vice that is Ziggy’s, I’ve never really had much reason to make my way to Micklegate. Tonight, however, I braved the slippery ice to catch the Lords of Misrule’s production of the 15th century morality plays 'Everyman' and 'Mankynde' (staged as a double-bill under the name Immorality and performed in the original Middle English) at the Church of St Mary Bishophill Junior, and I am delighted to report that it did not disappoint.
The church is one of the finest examples of medieval architecture in York, and provided an excellent setting for the plays. The audience were seated in the pews of the church, with the main action occurring in front of the altar. All morality plays have a religious message, of course, but this was really emphasised by the image of Jesus dying on the cross serving as a backdrop to the drama that was taking place. Characters occasionally addressed God by talking directly to the altar, which was an extremely nice touch.
'Everyman', directed by Cyrus Malekpour, was performed first. The titular Everyman (Niraj Davé) is visited by Death (Joost van den Oever) and is allowed time to find one companion to join him on his road to judgement. Davé was excellent as the hapless hero, injecting the right amount of pathos to his character without making him too annoying, and had the audience firmly on his side as he faced rejection after rejection from his friends. Plus he can do a helluva dance in time to rhymed pentameter. As Discretion, Fernando Guerrero was a larger-than-life presence, striding around the set like a kind of long-haired Neanderthal Zorro, complete with French accent. His comic timing was absolutely impeccable. Unfortunately, the cast seemed to suffer from a collective case of opening night nerves. Lines were flubbed, sometimes very noticeably, and occasionally lost due to vocal projection issues, which for a play not written in modern English proved to be quite a key issue for me. Nonetheless, I do believe the cast will grow in confidence for the rest of the run, and the overall performance was still very enjoyable.
The second half of the double-bill was Tom Straszewski’s 'Mankynde', which depicts Mischief (Whitney Ivey) and Mercy (Tom Davies) having a wager on the soul of the titular allegorical character (Erika Graham). The entire cast were uniformly excellent. The three malevolent Worldlings (Ryan Hunt, Annelies Tukker and Cynthia Krieger) pranced around the stage like demented clowns, with their slapstick and very often rude humour being a main source of the play’s laughs. Ivey overcame a nervous start and really grew into her role as the devilish puppet-master leading Mankind astray, while Davies’ brilliant Mercy was a stoic presence amidst the general craziness that surrounded him. Mark Burghagen as the demon Titivillus was a treat to watch, with extremely impressive facial expressions and gestures, and delivered his lines with a sinister clarity that meant nothing was lost in translation from the Middle English. Titivillus also had a brilliant costume possibly inspired by the Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Predator' films. Indeed, credit must go to Lucy Bonner, the costumier for both plays, for her excellent and imaginative designs that really brought the medieval world to life. The only real drawback of 'Mankynde' was the use of explosive caps; while the effect was quite impressive, it also meant the unexploded caps were littered on the ground and kept going off as the actors walked around on stage, but this was just a minor distraction and its overall effect was quite negligible.
In between both plays the Lords Singers choir performed a selection of Christmas carols in Latin, Galician and traditional English, and really added to the festive mood in the church. For amateur groups featuring a number of performers with little or no experience both the Lords of Misrule and the Lords Singers were wonderful to watch. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still highly enjoyable and I for one am looking forward to seeing what the Lords have in store for Spring Term.
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