The Drowned World was first produced by Paines Plough at the Traverse for the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe where it won a Fringe First after a sell-out run. The production then transferred to the Bush Theatre in London, and won the 2003 Pearson Best Play Award. The play has since been produced all over the world, from Dublin, to New York, to Tokyo, to Sydney - but not, as yet, in Wales. This new production in Chicago by ART will run for a month at the Athaenium Theatre, opening on January 19th. Director John McCormick says this about the play - The Drowned World takes place in a pre-apocalyptic civilization, one on the verge of collapse. Society has yet again been segregated, this time into “Citizens” and “Radiants.” Radiants are radiantly beautiful, while the Citizens are unexceptional, if not entirely unattractive. The Citizens dominate this society, an Orwellian entity known as “The Ministry” at the helm. Their only goal is to isolate, contain and neutralize the “problem” of the Radiants. Many are killed in the streets, others are captured alive and subjected to torturous medical experiments. It is on this backdrop that Gary Owen tells the story of two Radiants, Julian and Tara, who, in fleeing from a quarantine order, are forced to seek refuge with Darren, a citizen and former ministry employee. On their tail is Kelly, the commander of a “Butcher Squad,” who has her own motives in the tracking of Julian and Tara. The play unfolds in a well-balanced mix of terse dialogue and direct address. Notions of beauty, fidelity, integrity, kindness and avarice are seen explored in Owen’s characters, all of whom undergo a visible evolution within the span of the piece. At its core, The Drowned World is a play about the inextricable link between beauty and destruction, and the notion that beauty urges humanity towards destructive ends. Owen hesitates to take a moral stance, however. The definition of beauty and the efficacy of destruction are questioned equally, and the decision of which characters are justified is left up to the audience. The highly descriptive text, effusive at times though never superfluous, lends itself to personal interpretation, given the fact that the interpreter is given a great deal of information on a performed action or decision. Owen’s language is brutal, to say the least. Though the script calls for no direct violent action, the text is rife with graphic descriptions of violent acts, some of which skirt the border of truly upsetting. Bodies are burned, people are tortured, beaten and drowned; yet despite this fascination with the visceral, the language always retains an ethereal, lyrical quality, as well as a deep sense of cynical humor. http://www.actorsrevolutiontheatre.com/home.html |
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Friday, January 11, 2008 |
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