3 posts tagged “fyodor dostoevsky”
Well my reading marathon of Dostoevsky's The Idiot paid off. ...some trace of her, which was inspired by the novel was breathtaking, frustrating, fascinating, distracting and utterly engaging all at the same time.
I actually left the theatre feeling a bit shaky.
But how can I describe a performance unlike anything I've ever seen before? I can't hope to do it justice but I will at least try.
If you imagine a film set. A black and white movie. And it is being acted, lit, shot and sound recorded on a stage in front of you while simultaneously being editing and projected onto a screen hanging above the stage you get a bit of the idea.
There were no technical crew on stage though. It was all done by the actors with choreographed precision. (And live musician's back stage.)
At any one time three people could be playing in a shot. For example there was a scene where Prince Myshkin played by the once again far too talented Ben Whishaw is eating soup while deep in thought. Someone is filmed filling the soup spoon with soup and lifting it as though to their mouth, stage right while stage left, Whishaw completes the action lifting a soup spoon to his mouth and eating it. In the centre a third actor provides a voice to Myshkin's thoughts.
It is all instantly edited together so that on screen you are watching the Prince eat soup and listening to his thoughts.
At the same time the remaining actors are providing necessary sound effects and rapidly setting up for the next scene. In a film, each scene would be shot perspective by perspective then edited together at a later stage.
It all sounds a little chaotic and it was at times and quite distracting. Sitting close to the front, as I was, you are level with the stage so you did get sucked into what was happening there rather than watching it all come together on screen.
But it ached with cleverness at times. The sheer imagination and organisation and not forgetting the performances as there often wasn't another actor to play off.
Critics of it argue that you go the theatre to see the actors and it was difficult to see them in the flesh at times with lighting rigs, props and off-scene actors dodging about, especially as the stage had low lighting so as not to interfere with the 'film' lighting. But the thrill of the live performance was magnified by the fact that there were so many different technical elements all coming together at once right before your very eyes.
Katie Mitchell who wrote and directed has chosen to pick out the bare bones of the novel's story and pieced together its overall themes using a series of very loosely connected set pieces. There is little conversation and a lot of monologue.
A lot of the Dostoevsky's characters have been jettisoned to concentrate on the love triangle between the central characters. And that isn't a great shame, but I felt the Aglaya character who serves to complicate the love triangle in the book was introduced a little too late and the character underplayed.
One or two characters also seem to pop up randomly and this is where the background knowledge of the novel certainly helped to add to some context.
So it certainly wasn't without its floors. But the thrill of the live performance certainly made up for it.
It's been a bit of a marathon. 15 days and 652 (classic Penguin font) pages. In fact sometimes it's felt a little like
And although I confess I did skip over a page or two when characters fell into lengthy espousing of Dostoevsky's ideas I did actually enjoy it far more than I thought I would.
I don't pretend that I understood it all in great depth and there were times when I hated it. In completing it I certainly felt like I went on a journey with the central character Prince Myshkin or the idiot as he is perceived.
The plot is far too complicated to describe in any simple and meaningful way. There are so many characters Dostoevsky gives you a list on the opening page. Myshkin is often referred to in critiques as a Christ like figure whom the society of the day were unable to appreciate. I'm not entirely convinced by this interpretation. Certainly he behaves in a manner far more honourable than most of the characters but then his character does skate very close to the same characteristics of madness that many of the other characters seem to possess. In short my impression of 19th century middle class Russians after reading The Idiot is that they are all essentially a bit bonkers.
If you strip out a lot of the characters and scenic plot routes it is essentially about two men who love the same woman. Dostoevsky skillfully builds a sense of foreboding but the final denouement was faintly disappointing.
I've read reviews of the play, in which Ben Whishaw portrays the Prince, which say it is incomprehensible without having read the book but then a friend has watched it 'blind' so to speak and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tomorrow night will be the acid test.
...some trace of her is described as a multi-media performance which has a voice in the back of my head screaming 'arty wank'. Indeed there is a video trailer on the website. But regardless of how much of the story and themes I comprehend and how much is art for arts sake, it is seeing Whishaw on stage again that I am most excited about.
It was his casting that made me want to see it in the first place and consequently read the book.
I'm feeling a kind of post exam elation at the moment having completed my homework and having my free time back again. I'm hoping all my prep is rewarded.
Show us the last thing you bought.
...because in a couple of weeks I'm going to see a new play that is inspired by it.
