12 – 23 August
The little known and rarely performed cantata by Benjamin Britten is, on last night’s offering, a gem. Deborah Warner’s direction of Christine Rice has allowed this consummate performer to inhabit the role of Phaedra in what is an intense and deeply moving portrayal of lust, guilt and self-loathing – the catastrophe of falling for the beautiful youth, Hippolytus, son of her husband, Theseus. With little on stage to distract either performer or audience there is no hiding place, the solo performer is naked and in the intimate space that is the Ustinov, Ms Rice’s eyes carry as much of her inner turmoil as her voice. And what a voice; to be so close to a perfectly developed instrument, exercised at full-bore, is an experience in itself. But Ms Rice is a singer who can also act. Her energy and control in the recitatives carry through Britten’s rich intensity in the sung parts. Such emotionally draining and visceral performances as this, particularly in such a revelatory setting are rare indeed and are something to be treasured as examples of what perfected talents can achieve.
The on stage piano accompaniment of Richard Hetherington, is sensitive and fully aware of the dramatic contours of the piece.
Anthony McDonald’s vast light-box set completes the sense of exposure and the self-revelatory form of the piece. In the same vein lighting designer Jean Kalman’s use of shadow is particularly telling.
As in many a Greek tragedy it’s, ‘a family thing’, and the second part of this double bill is a telling through dance of another branch of the Minos family tragedy. Choreographer, Kim Brandstrup takes us into the Labyrinth where Ariadne, smart as a pin, smart as Daedalus, helps Theseus to kill the Minotaur. Yet the Minotaur, as much a prisoner as his victims, is in the same bloodline as Ariadne, sister to Phaedra whose mother, Pasiphaë, was condemned into bestiality with a bull for their father’s (Minos) failure to honour the gods with a sacrifice. Yet this is no dumb-show. The dancers, Laurel Dalley Smith, Tommy Franzen and Jonathan Goddard, give the human emotions that the myths invite us to explore – passion, seduction, resistance, rejection – at times taut and at times a swirling and free physical expression. The music of Eilon Morris is both familiar and distancing. The emotions we know whilst the mythical setting is inevitably strange. At the same time Antony McDonald’s spare, climbing-wall of a set leaves room for our imaginations. Who’d have thought a dancer (Tommy Franzen) could literally dance on the wall? Another rare treat.
Had we any concerns regarding the end of Laurence Boswell’s tenure at the Ustinov we can, after this her second offering, allow ourselves to become excited at the succession of Deborah Warner. The Ustinov under her direction continues to be a cabinet of rare wonders.
★★★★★ Graham Wyles 16 August 2022
Photo credit (Phaedra): Tristram Kenton Photo credit (Minotaur): Foteini Christofilopoulou
