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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue No 11
April, May, June 2008
Reviews
The Kreutzer, directed by Sara Brodie
Bats Theatre, Wellington
17 November 2007
Reviewed by Ann Hunt
This superbly realised production is a brilliant fusion of theatre, dance and music and is the most sophisticated and disturbing work seen at BATS in years. Based on an original idea by Peter Barber, adapted and directed by Sara Brodie, it combines the works of The Kreutzer Sonata Op. 47 for violin and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven; The Kreutzer Sonata by Lev Tolstoy; String Quartet No.1, after Tolstoy; and The Kreutzer Sonata by Leos Janacek.
It is in essence a monologue by Podznyshev (Tom McCrory), the husband whose jealousy drives him to murder his innocent young wife, whom he believes is having an affair with her piano tutor. In less assured hands, the work could have been florid and melodramatic. Here it is passionate and thrilling theatre.
I am sure many in the audience found the play unsettling - unpleasant even, and it definitely contained both those elements. But the production’s stunning cohesion enthralled and outweighed everything else.
The stage is bare save for the semblance of a train compartment at the rear, the grand piano and the seated musicians. A large eye above the set watches over everything, questioning "the act of viewing," and reminding us that we too are involved in an act of voyeurism. At one point porn magazines are handed out to the seated audience; McCrory prowls the stage with a hand held camera filming his wife as she plays or dances, while back projections play against the walls, all of which underlines this message and reinforces the claustrophobic nature of his obsession.
The wife is played by two women: pianist Catherine Armstrong and dancer Nina Baeyertz. This device cleverly illustrates the contrasting elements of the wife’s personality as seen by Podznyshev and perhaps as she really is. Such is the integration of music and dance, the roles are never at odds with themselves and we accept them as one.
McKay plays brilliantly, while violinist Donald Armstrong and the Nevine String Quartet, consisting of Elizabeth Patchett, Janet Armstrong, Peter Barber and Robert Ibell, all play with great skill and incredible focus, which at times must have been extremely difficult to maintain.
The very lovely Baeyertz invests her role as the dancer wife with a luminous innocence and grace. But the glue that holds the whole thing together is McCrory’s intensity. He fills the stage with his dark presence lurching from tenderness to sweating paranoia - this was a great performance.
Ann Hunt
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