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.
The Go-Between is an original musical by David Wood and Richard Taylor, based on L. P. Hartley's 1953 novel of the same name (a book which is said to have inspired Ian McEwan's Atonement).
The musical opens with Leo Colston, a man in his mid-sixties, rummaging through a large dusty trunk full of large books, flinging them about the stage frantically. A moment of serenity breaks the panic as he happens upon a small brown notebook which he opens tentatively, the moment he cracks it open, a swarm of ethereal spirits dressed in the clothes of the Victorian upper classes storm onto the stage singing 'Remember, Leo!' in an outstanding harmony that is only a small taster of things to come.
Over the course of the musical, these spirits replay the happenings of the summer of 1900 when a 12-year old Leo was invited to stay at their manor house. Unfortunately, The Go-Between suffers thereon from a slow start. Character relationships are established laboriously and the conceit seems to be explained time and time again where it certainly does not need to. Chamber musicals in this fashion often suffer because of one idea taking the focus of an entire song whereas in traditional drama, such a thought would be conveyed to the audience in a single line. The script could certainly benefit from a further edit to pick up the pace of the musical and improve the flow of the scenes to prevent them from becoming stagnant and uninteresting. Fortunately, around forty minutes into the first act, the production picks up pace. The plot develops into something very intriguing as the audience (and the older Leo) are forced to watch the dramatic narrative unstoppably hurtle towards its tragic conclusion.
The cast of The Go-Between is a brilliant ensemble, there is not one weak link either in acting or singing. Moments in which they all sing together are astounding and powerful. With such a strong cast, I would have liked to hear more a capella chorals, as these were the moments when The Go-Between truly shone. It was unfortunate that the volume levels were not correct; although the singers were only accompanied by a piano, it often drowned out some important songs and stopped being background accompaniment, fighting its way to the foreground, much to my perturbation. At points the pianist, too, was out of time - not surprising considering he was constantly playing, but nevertheless a slight annoyance which distracted from the overall success of the musical. Particular applause must be given to the two young actors playing Leo and his friend, Marcus (on the night I saw, Jake Abbott and John Cairns). They undertook mammoth tasks and had to perform alongside professional adult actors whom they matched and sometimes surpassed in talent and ability. Equally, James Staddon playing Colston, the older Leo, put in a marvellous turn. His singing voice was powerful but soft, full of vulnerability, frustration and regret. His performance as Colston in acting scenes was equally emotionally powerful; he carried the musical with ease and impressive capability. Scenes between the old and young Leo were particularly touching, an accomplishment not only due to the actors but masterful writing and direction by David Wood and Roger Haines.
The set was beautiful, a remembered ballroom with mirrored walls, tarnished with age, wild grasses growing up through the cracks in the floorboards, the furniture perished to translucency. Huge French windows swing out onto open air and fields, a golden countryside that could stretch for miles beyond the horizon. The set, designed by Michael Pavelka is the most gorgeous and evocative that I have seen in the Courtyard theatre space at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. However, it is certainly not the most practical. Clear, perspex faux-Victorian dining chairs are scattered across the stage and are often climbed on or stepped over. When they are used in such a manner they begin to twist and strain under the weight of the actors, leaving the audience trembling with the thought of them buckling at any time, sending an actor crashing to the floor. Similarly the strewn books from the first scene and wild grasses prove a hazard for the women in longer dresses, on no less than three occasions did someone embarrassingly trip up on unseen debris. The Go-Between isn't a big-budget, glitzy musical. There are no show-stopping numbers, no lines of dancing girls and you probably won't even come away with a single refrain stuck in your head. Nevertheless, it is a great musical which, although suffering slightly from a lack of editing, will hopefully be revived time and time again. It is a classic tale of unbridled love restricted by social class boundaries and propriety which will have you white-knuckled throughout the second act. It is a musical different to any I have seen before, it is accomplished and entertaining and deserves to be seen in its first incarnation at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
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