How does one objectively review a production that has been engaged in so passionately by its director Emma Rice?! Rice has described her production of ‘Tristan and Yseult as ‘her letter to love. It speaks of longing and giving, abandon and obsession, loss and despair. It intoxicates as I have intoxicated and hurts as I have hurt. It tells how there is always a price, always a loser and always hope. It thanks love, it hates love and it celebrates love’.
Actually, the answer is, with a great deal of respect and admiration in the case of Kneehigh Theatre’s invigorating production of ‘Tristan and Yseult’ which has been playing an extended season at Sydney’s Seymour Centre.
The springboard for Rice’s theatrical letter tso love is a radical dramatisation of a 12th century Cornish poem recounting the ancient tale of ‘Tristan and Yseult’.
The tale goes that Irish beauty Yseult is torn between two lovers. Yseult loves and marries King Mark, the King of Cornwall. She is also in love with French knight, Tristan. Her situation inevitably comes to a head.
Rice grabs the 12th century poem and lands it dramatically in 21st century contemporary theatre. The theatrical recipe is an audacious one. Almost everything in a directors’ artillery that can create emotional impact is used. A live band sitting on a raised platform complements the action…In some scenes the actors perform acrobatic ballet on a stage trampoline…A lot of work was put into the costuming….There was plenty of audience interaction, with at one time many in the audience throwing unknotted white balloons (provided before the show) onto the stage during the festive celebrations for Yseult’s wedding to the King.
My highlight from the production was the way that it ran on two levels and made for fascinating contrast. On the main level the audience saw the story of ‘Tristan and Yseult’ unfolding, this story of great, overwhelming passion.
On the other level was the story and intrigues of the ‘Chorus of the Unloved’. This chorus comprised characters which were deprived of romantic love and look everywhere to find out. Rice drapes these characters in anorak clad gear, and go everywhere with binoculars, spying on love.
This contrast fitted into the play thematically. It was as much about the effect of the absence of love on people as it was about the impact of the power of love when it arrives.
The Festival of Sydney, in conjunction with Belvoir’s Company B, brought out this Kneehigh Theatre Company production out all the way from its home base in misty Cornwall in England. In the main roles, Kneehigh founder Mike Shepherd played King Mark of Cornwall, Tristan Shurrock played Tristan, and Eva Magyar played Yseult.