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.
Moksha. A Hindu word meaning ‘to escape’. Whether that be from one’s past, from inner demons and childhood fears or from desperate aspirations of what you might achieve, Tom Vickers’ handsomely written ‘Ramadan Amadeus’ lets the audience do just that: escape.
The play charts one man (Amadeus, nicknamed and loosely based on the legend of Faust) and his battle between religion and science, logic and irrationality leading us through the twists and turns of the complex, and no doubt challenging character. However, Joe William’s passionate portrayal engages from the very first flicker of the stark electric light bulbs dangling above. And the pretty imagery doesn’t stop there. With a rather elaborate design including a renaissance looking desk and a shrine-like altar, a cyclic backdrop of muslin sheets helps to create a dreamy, foreign quality. Performing to their peers in the round was a challenge skilfully accepted and overcome by each of the eleven actors as they melted in and out of the space from numerous exits despite the odd first-night hiccup.
Although the pace wasn’t as engaging as I like it to be, the actors bravely undertook Vickers’ intricately detailed and at times rather dense text, injecting both passion and sentiment into the performance. Laura Horton and Ryan Lane appeared particular masters of this whilst Jonny Glasgow’s eccentric mathematician created a lasting impression despite the triviality of the role. Special reference however should be made of Tom Stokes and Joe Williams duo. On stage for the majority (if not all) of the play they manage to create a DoppelgÓ“nger relationship between narrative master and confined hostage. Assisted by his unnatural makeup, Tom Stokes (playing Mephisto) emanates eeriness from every pore. His lingering presence in the shadows and sudden dictatorial outbursts are not only convincing but brimming with emotion as well.
We follow him as Amadeus fervently guides us through the patchwork of memories, flashbacks, hallucinations and nightmares with apparently no precise time or location until a slightly surreal and arguably unnecessary climax in which Emma Cooke’s emphatic Joan of Arc suddenly seems to adopt an unexplained predominant role. Feeling a little stilted at times it seems like a resolution will be reached which is the desperate urge of the audience throughout the play. This is not quite the case and we witness one more final confrontation between Amadeus and his demon questioning exactly how will this exploration of the psyche be put to rest?
As Amadeus poignantly evolves in the final few moments of the play, your mind is as littered as the stage floor which over the course of the two and a half hour piece (rather epic I agree) has become peppered with chalk, paper, ashes, petals and various other odds and ends. Is Ramadan a homage to influential, infamous historic figures? Or is it simply a self-reflexive pilgrimage through a far off culture that the motif-like soundtrack of monsoons attempts to illustrate? Whichever you decide Ramadan Amadeus is a script that challenges, confuses and indeed educates perhaps a little more than your average barn play. However, with such a diligent and diverse cast it is a seamless cohesion of stories and mythology (some true and some possibly sought off Wikipedia) that through striking, imaginative imagery show that “reality has the substantiality of a dream”.
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