War and Peace Part Two

Published Monday 11 February 2008 at 10:20 by Pat Ashworth

Watching the characters develop or decline over a time-span of 15 years is utterly absorbing. Barnaby Kay gives a riveting performance as the clumsy, eager, ingenuous Pierre Bezuhov, whose ideology undergoes seismic shifts in the course of events.

His mental exchanges with Napoleon are like Don Camillo’s conversations with God, and his encounter in prison with Platon Karataev, the man of simple faith, is both comic and poignant. The power of religion is nowhere more awesomely stated than in the raising up of an icon of the Madonna and Child on the battlefield at Borodino. It is hauled up from the depths like a weapon of war itself.

Performances are extraordinary. Louise Ford as Natasha grows from child to woman, and one of the most powerful scenes of the whole production is her seduction at the opera by the decadent Anatole (Hywel Morgan). It stills the theatre in a collective holding of breath. His overtures and her response become an operatic duet, after which their aborted elopement is sudden and shocking.

Jeffery Kissoon is magnificent as the glaring, raging Prince Bolkonsky, who bullies into submission his pious daughter, Maria. Kate Wimpenny plays her with a controlled terror that only breaks down when he exhibits a final madness that sees him disgraced in his nightgown and clutching a chamber pot.

It’s hard to do justice to such a rare and beautiful offering. There’ll be no question of anyone seeing the first play and not queuing up to see the second.