Free Theatre with University Drama
Programme presents "Medea Material" by Heiner Mueller at the
University Theatre, Arts Centre. Di-
rected by Peter Falkenberg. Running
time: about 2 hours. Reviewed by
Imogen de la Bere.
It is not often that I am stuck for
words. But in describing "Medea
Material" I cannot find language
adequate to the experience. It bears as
much relationship to what passes for
theatre here as chess does to snakes
and ladders.
As an experience it is like a cross
between a religious ritual and an act of
sex. It has its own internal logic, its
own overwhelming life-view, its own
absolute absorption.
It exalts and terrifies, demands
complete concentration, yet allows the
participants freedom and a complex
form of relaxation. None of this, I am
aware, comes near to conveying what
"Medea Material" is like; since the
event enlarges our perception of what
is possible, comparsons will in fact
prove fatuous.
In simple terms, the heart of the
performance is in fact five performances, all enacted in different parts of
a brilliantly devised, house - full of
nooks and stairs and peepholes.
Five performances of "Medea" happening more or less simultaneously;
each a variation on the theme, each
riveting. The observer torn this way
and that, watches a part of this
version over here, then catches a
fragment of that amazingly different
version over there.
Performances of such discipline
and intensity are rarely seen, even on
the professional stage. That ten student actors could work together, and
separately, consistently at this level
would be incredible, were it not true.
Of the four components of the piece,
I found the second and fourth
("Despoiled Shore", "Landscape with
Argonauts") a little overblown. The
latter, after the shattering brilliance of
the central Medea play, was rather a
disappointment. Nor could I under-
stand why the physical exactitude of
the mime mid ritual was not matched
in the dancing.
Small irritants aside, Falkenberg
has, once again, set a standard of
brilliant imaginative theatre which
others can only dream of attaining.
But if only they would just dream of it.