Published in the Scotsman
NOT for the first time this year have we seen a classic drama played
out in a psychiatric hospital. Like Alan Cumming’s recent Macbeth,
Tadashi Suzuki’s mesmerising treatment of the Euripides play is set
among white aprons and wheelchairs.
In the belief that “all the world’s a hospital”, Suzuki
has returned to this idea repeatedly in his work. In an institutional
setting, he can observe characters who have direct access to their most
intense feelings. But the aspect that hits you most powerfully in this
60-minute, espresso-shot of a production is less the setting than the
exacting control the director yields over the performers of the Suzuki
Company of Toga. It’s as if every breath, every pulse, every gesture and
syllable has been choreographed to yield maximum tension.
You
feel at any moment something will snap and the deep, dangerous
psychological forces that keep this ancient Greek tragedy alive will be
unleashed.
Above all is the compelling figure of Yoo-Jeong Byun as Electra, furious at her mother’s murder of her father
and waiting for her brother Orestes to enact revenge. Stock still,
centre stage, she is frighteningly composed. Arms jutting like wings,
one leg up as if ready to propel her out of the wheelchair, she has the
concentration of a bird of prey, alert, silent and ready to pounce.
She is a central presence almost from the start, yet the show is
half-way through before we hear her voice. The ferociousness of her
internal monologue, relayed by the chorus of topless male patients,
becomes too great to keep in: “Orestes will return.”
With Chieko
Naito as her mother, Clytemnestra, a towering giant of amoral
self-justification, and Midori Takada performing live percussion with
the same precision and elemental restraint as the actors, the production is a vital masterclass in theatrical control.
Rating: ****
© Mark Fisher, 2012
More coverage at theatreSCOTLAND.com
Sign up for theatreSCOTLAND updates
Sign up for theatreSCOTLAND discussion
No comments:
Post a Comment