Lucky Bristol, not so lucky Lulu. Opera North, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Warwick Arts Centre combined to present this penetratingly dark take on Frank Wedekind’s original plays Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora’s Box (1904).
Looking like a character from the Circus of Horrors, or perhaps an extra from Shaun of the Dead, Tiger Lillies’ band leader Martyn Jacques delivered Lulu’s sad tale with a distinctly Brechtian twist. His falsetto vocals and Breton-like accordion accompaniment were used to great effect alongside his comrades, the wonderful bass, Theremin and musical saw-playing Adrian Stout, and equally inventive drummer Mike Pickering. They were joined by Laura Caldow as Lulu, spinning and gyrating like a toy dancer on top of the most sinister of musical boxes.
Jacques goes for broke when it comes to portraying the excesses of whore-mongering. “Get your tits OUT,” he yells at one point, and that’s just him as Lulu’s dad anxious to his put his progeny on the streets. Serious mayhem is about to engulf the life of this co-opted woman.
Drawn by her attractiveness male suitors seem to fall prey to their own failings in her company. Husbands are cuckolded, drop dead or are shot, weedy lovers kill themselves. Victims seem to proliferate around Lulu before she herself succumbs to a terrible end at the hands of Jack the Ripper. In one of the blackest moments of the night we are asked to consider Jack as an angel who releases Lulu, finally, from the oppressive world she inhabits, even if it’s with a knife. The male assaults can at last go on no longer.
The Lillies make this tableau of grotesques sizzle with two sets of blisteringly well-constructed story/songs based on Wedekind’s original words. The music has a sultry tangoesque feel to it, and we are constantly taken to new places by the ethereal swooping of the Theremin, the clacking of coconuts, or the scraping of cymbals.
Enhancing the Lillies undisputed musical prowess, a magical stage design by visual artist Mark Holthusen presents a series of mesmerizing and stylized images, of Paris, Cairo and later London – all projected onto layered gauze behind which Lulu shimmers. Particularly memorable was the scene in which she walks frightened and alone through a foggy London night, passing lit lampposts as the mist sweeps past her.
The Tiger Lillies extraordinary back catalogue of thirty albums recorded over 25 years since their launch in 1989 all explore the darker side of life. To hear and see the band is like stepping inside the beguiling but shadowy world of an Edward Gorey illustration – where the dysfunctional and the lonely lurch around gripped hopelessly by desire or fantasy. The Tiger Lillies grip you by the hand and frog march you through worlds you might not want to linger in. But there is a refreshing lack of sentimentality in their landscapes. Only appearing at the Old Vic for a single night, check www.tigerlillies.com for future performances elsewhere. A must-see. ★★★★★ Simon Bishop
