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Fiona Mountford's rating
Don John needs charisma
By
Fiona Mountford
19 Dec 2008
From its modest Cornish base, Kneehigh has gradually been taking over the theatrical world.
Its boisterous, physical storytelling has seen it invited to the stages of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival and the National and, last month, it won a Standard Award for a playful reworking of Brief Encounter.
Perhaps such a heady ascent has left the company gasping for air, as this new take on the downfall of the legendary lover is limp in all the wrong places.
Director Emma Rice and writer Anna Maria Murphy have re-spun Mozart’s Don Giovanni, setting it, for no easily discernible reason, in the 1978 “winter of discontent”. If the sense of time and place were more coherent, this transposition could have worked a treat, but some tight trousers and a BBC test card on a black and white screen aren’t enough to convince us.
A nice touch, however, sees used props bundled into black bags and dumped at the edges of the stage in authentic late-Seventies dustbin-strike style.
The plot — although not the unexceptional between-scenes music — is a close approximation of the Mozart original, with John brought down by three women, although no statue.
We have vicar’s wife Anna, Polish cleaner Zerlina and Elvira, a character whose token background detail is one mention of a business meeting.
Murphy’s script gives us no way into this trio, although Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir makes an impressive job of Anna’s anguish once John has raped her and killed her father.
But what of the man himself? Is he enough to make the women of this forlorn town stop their laborious shunting of the industrial metal container that constitutes a large part of the set? With his long black woolly jumper and knee-length boots, Gisli Örn Gardarsson looks like a wannabe New Romantic poet and acts like a man thinking about bus timetables.
He is tedious, pretentious and entirely charisma-free, the sort of guy anyone over the age of 18 would studiously avoid at parties. Such an uncompelling performance wouldn’t stand out so starkly if only this production buzzed with Kneehigh’s customary riotous invention.
As it is, an enervating air of melancholia settles over the piece early on and refuses to budge, making the many longueurs seem very long indeed. Don John is a less than ravishing evening.
In repertory until 10 January.
Box office: 0844 8001110. www.rsc.org.uk
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (10)
High voltage performances are simply not enough in the end. Although Don John casting raises a few questions: was it deliberate to cast him as a giant block of wood? A more amateur act would be difficult to imagine. Despite valiant performances from Elvira, Nobby and the Vicar the entire show collapses under its uneven script and repetitive scenarios. As for the final invitation to join the dance, audience participation has to be earned to work. Here it was just the school play on a big budget.
- Peter Rowlands, London UK, 16/04/2009 23:42
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Kneehigh Rool OK! Even the terrible journey to Battersea could'nt stop me enjoying this fantastic play. As expected with Kneehigh, the set, songs, and of course the acting was superb. I can't understand some of the bad reviews, this is theatre at its vibrant best. Can't wait to see whats next from them.
- Ed, hertford, 12/04/2009 11:47
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I really loved the show, yes there were moments of weaknes and the vicar could have been a stronger character. At times the stage was too busy with a hive of movement. All in all the shoW had spectacular stage effects in lighting and sound and visualality. the actors were beleivable and even if you didn't live or have experiences of the seventies you were transported into a time that mimicked any other time in our lives.
- Shaz, Glos, 01/03/2009 23:18
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Just seen this in Birmingham and I don't believe these other reviewers saw the same play! It was, as ever with Kneehigh, fantastic. Inventive throughout and all the actors and musicians were superb. Loved every second of it.
- Ian, Birmingham, UK, 19/02/2009 18:24
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Naive book and lyrics. Very dull first half rescued by an excellent song at the end of the act. Second act had to be better and it was, but again only because it was rescued by one or two moments of interesting music and physicality.
- Ph, Birmingham, 19/02/2009 17:38
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Very disappointing because I'd heard great things about Kneehigh. No emotional engagement and a superfluous plot. Felt like I was watching a show put on by a bunch of talented sixth formers...
- Guido, Birmingham, UK, 19/02/2009 12:56
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Lacked anything 'Kneehigh'. The best bit was the effect lighting effect of the mirror ball in the second half, other than that it was SO BORING. I went with family, we yawned and fidgeted our way through ihe fiirst hour and were more than ready to leave at the interval.......Sorry Kneehigh, this was a complete let down.
Can we have refund.... that was the most wasted £72 we have ever spent????!!!!!!
- Pod, Cornwall, 18/02/2009 09:31
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utterly, utterly, utterly disappointing. i found myself wanting to start a fistfight during the interval, just to feel *something*. in the second half I mostly daydreamed...apparently i didn't miss much. most of the audience clearly couldn't wait to leave at the end.
- Ellie, cornwall, 05/02/2009 14:38
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Wonderfully inventive use of music. The live band and the live singing are moving and energetic. The show is dark; but it is a ravishing evening!
- Anthony Lawton, Leicester, UK, 03/01/2009 10:55
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A folorn shadow of Kneehigh's former glory. This is about as coherent as an unedited piece of improvisation by a bunch of Sixth Form drama students. All the cliches, all the symbolism, all the mawkish 'relevance'. It drags.
- Judith, Bristol, 30/12/2008 20:18
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