The Stage

Vertigo

Published Wednesday 18 October 2006 at 17:30 by Barbara Lewis

Vertigo - or a fear of falling so great it leaves the sufferer unable to act - has become synonymous with Hitchcock’s classic psychological thriller.

Following its previous theatre productions of plots made famous by films, Red Shift’s version of Vertigo is inevitably less chilling than Hitchcock’s, despite a

sinister, claustrophobic setting among the institutional baths of a French sanatorium.

Directed by Jonathan Holloway, it also risks being confusing rather than richly ambiguous and it’s hard not to crave a vertiginous tower, even if the set’s short flights of steps pose a challenge for the vertigo-sufferer.

What we lose is offset by a powerful emphasis on the parallel between vertigo and the experience of living through occupied France.

Adding depth to the comparison, the central character is in love with a French woman of a bygone age and this confusion of identity is linked to madness and murder.

As the objects of his affections, Jane Stanton switches neatly between accents of the sophisticated Madeleine Gevigne and the street-wise Renee Sourange.

Lover and victim Roger Flavieres is portrayed by Dean Lepley as far more normal than mad. Jonathan Tafler takes on roles of Jacques Ballard, his flamboyant doctor, and Madeleine’s husband, who is responsible for making his condition much worse.

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