Do3 - Sun 01 Dec - new Howard Barker

[Guest]

In the Depths of Dead Love
Richard E Grant, Francesca Annis
Hold on tight! Potential event!

[french frank]

In the Depths of Dead Love
Richard E Grant, Francesca Annis
Hold on tight! Potential event!

Ha! the last play by HB on Do3 was very good, as I remember - the Moving Something Or Other? (No, not The Moving Toyshop). Must check - it had a medieval setting ... monks?

[french frank]

The Moving and the Still.

[aeolium]

I very much enjoyed this new play by Barker, which despite its claustrophobic setting and apparently limited dramatic action actually seemed to pack a lot into its comparatively short duration. There were many themes explored here, life, death, love, the constraints of convention and the boundaries of language. The dialogue was sparely and concisely written and the impressive musical accompaniment helped to heighten the tension, which turned on a sustained unpredictability of outcome and constantly fluctuating reactions from the main characters leading to a conclusion which was anything but foreseeable. It was very well spoken especially by Richard E Grant, Francesca Annis and Michael Bertenshaw.

[Tevot]

I very much enjoyed this new play by Barker, which despite its claustrophobic setting and apparently limited dramatic action actually seemed to pack a lot in to its comparatively short duration. There were many themes explored here, life, death, love, the constraints of convention and the boundaries of language. The dialogue was sparely and concisely written and the impressive musical accompaniment helped to heighten the tension, which turned on a sustained unpredictability of outcome and constantly fluctuating reactions from the main characters leading to a conclusion which was anything but foreseeable. It was very well spoken especially by Richard E Grant, Francesca Annis and Michael Bertenshaw.

Thanks for the heads up and thumb up aeolium I'll try and give it a listen...

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[french frank]

Just listened and, yes, it's very intriguing - and quite humorous in the earlier part (in fact, sort of comic the rest of the time too). He has created a strange situation in which it seems that anything or nothing - can happen. For the poet, language is a way of formulating various alternative possibilities.

[aeolium]

Yes, a definitely dark humour but with more of darkness than humour much of the time. I liked the poet's reactions to the different verbs used to describe the act of propelling the unfortunate lady to her doom. Listening to it again I don't think my comments about sparely and concisely written dialogue were quite accurate, in that there were certainly episodes where there was an almost intemperate garrulity but always precisely directed to the subject, sometimes resembling parts of a Beckett monologue. Nothing was wasted in the writing, I thought.