Review: The Underground
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Summerhall, 25th and 26th August 2016
[usr 3]
The Underground is an incredibly competent performance. The blocking is extraordinary: both in choreography and execution. The actors trained to the hilt. Their voices, beauteous and haunting; no small point as much of the piece is sung in Russian.
It is a dire shame then, that somewhere in the avante garde nature of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards‘ performance, audiences may be at a loss to exactly what they are bearing witness to. Having no clear narrative is no sin of itself, but here even the purpose lacks clarity. The poetry of Doestovesky’s words, often frantically delivered at feverish speed, often merely becomes sound without meaning; it’s substance lost.
The supporting material self-assuredly proclaims that, “The idea of ‘poor theater’ revolutionised theatre on many levels… it had to strip things down to what is essential, which is the actor and the audience.” Sadly, lack of consideration for the second of these two elements is exactly what dims the clear acumen of the first. The audience is not brought in on this piece – it is happening to them.
To call the work pretentious would be false – that would imply that the performers are not as good as their hype, they are. But the piece talks over peoples heads to aggrandise itself. Fundamentally there is no need for it to be 2 hours long (after a thankful cut of another 30 minutes!). It would make a much stronger piece at 70, and given the lack of narrative none of its splendour need have been lost. Perhaps, fundamentally, this larger-than-life work would have been better suited to the International Festival than the Fringe.
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