The talent is there in the company’s latest production, but here’s why it doesn’t quite work.
Bell Shakespeare, Arts Centre Melbourne, until August 11. Veteran theatregoers won’t have forgotten the disaster of Barrie Kosky directing John Bell in 1998. The attempt to reimagine the tragedy as apocalyptic carnival was doomed to be a vaudevillian misfire, Kosky’s avant-garde vision clashing badly with Bell’s rather classical approach to Shakespearean acting.
This Lear feels like a rehearsal for something more fully imagined and embodied. None can fault Menzies’ command of Shakespeare’s language. The cruelty and bitterness of the invective comes darkly alive; less experienced members of the cast should be using the performance as a masterclass on handling the technical aspects, such as scansion and enjambment, of verse drama., leaving his infirmity largely of the mind.
We are introduced to Kalli – dancer Kallirroi Vratti – who realised at the age of 21 that, all her life, she had misspelled her own name. The struggle for control of her identity is then depicted through a neatly orchestrated combat between Vratti and a digital avatar projected onto a thin curtain. At the heart of that world lie the pianist’s elaborate compositions, which weave together the myriad influences of her upbringing, cultural heritage and lived experiences.
Gurusamy opens the two-hour recital with a piece on the origins of the universe, inspired by the famous Hymn of Creation of the ancient Rigveda. It is his most innovative and experimental piece – and his most personal.
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