Long before today’s suicide bombers, Nobel prize-winning existentialist Albert Camus explored the idea of dying for a cause and confronted the possibility it was ultimately a futile act.
Benjamin Polya’s fresh, new version of Camus’ drama of moral struggle seamlessly adds in detail absent from the original French to ensure we re-live the dilemmas and manages to end with a pun that works well in English.
Directed by Dan Horrigan and with movement direction by Tim Lenkiewicz, the characters’ inner agony is very physically and convincingly expressed. We believe in their sincerity, however misguided we might think it.
Dora, played by Alinka Wright, making an impressive professional debut, reaches out to the other characters as if trying to wrench their thoughts.
Her tightest bond is with Yanek, a naive, yet heroic poet who loves life and is elegantly played by Tim Daish.
He stands in contradistinction to the rigid Stepan Fedorov (James Sobol Kelly), who loves only justice.
Both are offset by the calm authority of Boria Annenkov (Andrew James Storey), although he too is prone to abrupt outbursts in the tense atmosphere.
Horrigan awards himself the cameo role of Foka, who is the common sinner, floor cleaner and, more tellingly, the executioner.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
Content is copyright © 2012 The Stage Media Company Limited unless otherwise stated.
All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)
