| Views from the Stage & in the Rehearsal Studio |
At Company of Sirens |
| A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death- Company of Sirens , Chapter , June 15, 2023 |
There is an ethics to writing. Writers cannot review the work of friends. The relationship can be one of comradeship or one of critic but it cannot be both. Gary Raymond has been cited on this site, approvingly, the last occasion below 19th January. In place of criticism I was an observer, director Chris Durnall and company allowing me, eight days before the opening, to spend five hours in the rehearsal studio. What I saw was not what the audiences at Chapter were to see. It was akin to a visit to a gallery in Lund in Sweden. The University, one of Europe's oldest, has assembled a collection that is unique, preparatory drawings and sketches made by great names in the visual arts. The works contain deep artistry in themselves, but point to fuller things that are to come. These were to be seen in the Seligman Studio: The novelists who have successfully written for stage are few- Lawrence, Storey, Frayn. The disciplines are wholly different. A playwright needs to be doing five things all at the same time. What is needed for theatre is there, present from the start, in “A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death”. The life of a play is in its inner architecture, verbal and thematic cross-resonance at work. Otherwise it is plinky-plonk, one thing, then another. “A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death” achieves this counterpoint in its framework, action played out in apposition across two time periods. A sense of metaphor is indispensable. There must be things beyond the action but contained within it. Here the prose of Dorothy Edwards has its counterpoint in music; a cascade of tones flows from Stacey Blythe's ever inventive fingers at the keyboard. It is there in the lines that talk of “the rhythms of the heart” and “the silences that are too much, too deep, too frequent.” A play is a view into another time, another place. We are there for a Bloomsbury-era social event. A Caradoc Evans portrait has, we learn, been slashed. Jâms Thomas, in a range of roles, gives an array of tones and period accents. Angharad Matthews wears a hat of glorious size and ostentation. On a return to Wales she changes to a monochrome dress. She becomes a figure of haunting isolation that might have stepped from a Gwen John canvas. Playwright after playwright has written of the need for the right director; that closeness of relationship is essential. “A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death” in its final form has moved back-and-forth over months between Gary Raymond and Chris Durnall. First-time writing for stage from novelists is often too emphatic. The characters need to retain their points of mystery, space for the actors to inhabit and move around in. So it is here. The actors have lots to do. The hands of Angharad Matthews play out a symphony of expressiveness. “A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death” looks to be about the condition of creativity itself. There is nothing that is ever new without a dislocation in the inner self that makes it. “Two souls live within my breast” says Goethe's Mephistopheles to Faust. A sublimated sense of Wales runs through this Dorothy Edwards. A key line runs “I couldn't write in Wales but couldn't escape.” * * * * Get the Chance was at Chapter to see Chris Durnall direct the first work for theatre by Gary Raymond. From the review: “A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death’ starts at the end of Dorothy Edwards’ life and moves backwards through twin storylines: in the past, Dorothy (Angharad Matthews) is inducted into London’s writing elite by David Garnett (Jâms Thomas); in the present, actors Meg and Byron, also played by Matthews and Thomas, debate how best to bring her story to life. “The play’s title – taken from a line in Winter Sonata (1928), her only novel – is an apt description of the drama, which toys with musical and emotional tempos. “...Matthews is radiant as Dorothy...a quiet defiance to her performance that embodies the stoic passion of Edwards’ heroines “...the stage – a square room with its triangle of wooden decking – plays with geometric shapes. The fact that it is designed by Matthews means that we are watching two hidden architects at work. “...the live score by the luminous Stacey Blythe manifests Dorothy’s melodious thought processes: but as Matthews descends the steps for the first time, she slams down on the keys...David and Dorothy circle each other, dynamics shifting, power crystallising. The sense that she was always thinking, always writing, with pen in hand or not, is ever-present, especially in the vibrant second act. “...Company of Sirens have worked their magic once more, and never is this clearer than in the exquisite closing scene...an effortless coda that leaves Dorothy at a moment of pure synthesis. It is a slip of linen on the breeze; a single sustained note, that carries on even when darkness falls.” The full review can be read at: https://getthechance.wales/2023/05/31/a-beautiful-rhythm-of-life-and-death-chapter-arts-centre-by-barbara-hughes-moore/ |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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