The Diver

Published Friday 11 July 2008 at 15:40 by Nuala Calvi

The second collaboration at the Soho between Japanese theatremaker Hideki Noda, playwright Colin Teevan and actress Kathryn Hunter is more whimsical than its predecessor, The Bee, but similarly charged with themes of violence, vengeance and betrayal.

Its rich tapestry weaves together 11th century Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, the traditions of Noh theatre and a contemporary real-life story about a woman charged with an arson attack, whose troubled mind causes her to invent multiple personalities.

One minute believing herself a mistress of the ancient emperor, wreaking revenge on his pregnant wife, the next his mother and then a pearl diver battling a dragon, Hunter’s character seamlessly moves from past to present, reality to fantasy, colouring the world around her with her imagination.

Props from one era and culture ingeniously pop up in another, as fans become mobile phones, pizza slices or champagne glasses and the outlines of the squabbling police inspector and public prosecutor loom large like shadow puppets behind a paper screen.

But Hunter relies on few props to realise her startling transformations, her lithe body and otherworldly voice providing the necessary instruments.

Cast mate Harry Gostelow has a particularly good line in lanky buffoonery, his empty-headed Genji and philandering prosecutor at the same time laughable and despicable.

Surreally comic moments, such as a TV quiz show twist on the Genji tale, somehow manage not to sit uneasily with the play’s darker themes and devastatingly bleak conclusion.