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GYPT STAGE GOTHIC GORMENGHAST
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Gwent Young People’s Theatre will stage the gothic Gormenghast at the Borough Theatre, Abergavenny on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 3, 4 and 5 February.
Mervyn Peake’s epic fantasy trilogy, dramatised by John Constable, may not boast monsters or spectres from the grave, but this gruesome, gothic drama has become a landmark in the history of adaptation for the stage.
Gormenghast is a coming-of-age story that takes as its main theme the revolt of youth against the established order.
It presents a world bound by iron laws and the dead weight of tradition,
encapsulated in the ritual refrain ‘No Change!’.
Set in the labrynthine Gormenghast Castle, home of the ritual-ridden Groan family, two young men are struggling to make their way through.
Steerpike, the renegade kitchen-boy who seduces and murders his way up the social ladder and Titus Groan, heir to Gormenghast who comes to threaten its very existence.
Steerpike knows instinctively that you can win power by manipulation; Titus feels his role is defined as one of meaningless power.
Along the way there are the guts and chopper of Swelter the cook, the twittering twin aunts Cora and Clarice seduced by power beyond their comprehension, and the army of cats that accompany the monstrous Countess Gertrude.
It is a challenging drama, jointly directed by Gary Meredith, Stephen Badman and Leighton Martin, in which each of the three acts culminates in a dramatic reversal of fortune in the lives of the principal characters.
Tickets are £8 and £6 (conc) from the Borough Theatre Booking Office (tel 01873 850805) and the performance is at 7.30pm on each evening.
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Sunday, January 30, 2011 |
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