Elstob one of the best to appear at Pitlochry
You are either a fan of Sir Tom Stoppard or struggle to follow the complexities of his plots.
Travesties certainly challenges the theatre-goer to follow the rambling mind of the ageing Henry Carr, reminiscing in 1974 over a period of his life back in 1917 during the First World War, when he was a British Consulate official in Switzerland.
Set in Zurich, Carr recalls his meetings at that time with James Joyce, the Irish writer and founder of the modernist movement, the Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and Tristan Tzara, the founder of the art movement Dada.
With such a collection of revolutionary thinkers in one setting, it is no wonder Carr’s memory leads him to repeat bits of dialogue as his confused mind tries to unscramble the subjects of social revolutions in Russia, the nonsense of Dadaism (which consisted of artists who rejected logic and reason, expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works) and Joyce writing his masterpiece‘Ulysses’.
Add to the complexities of these individuals the fact that Carr appeared in a production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of being Earnest’, produced by Joyce, results in characters from that play interweaving themselves into the storyline.
Gwendolen, Cecily, Jack and the younger Carr who had played Algy, add to the confusion in his mind and the storyline.
Mark Elstob is magnificent as Henry Carr, commanding the stage from the beginning as the muddled, elderly consulate official trying to recall the happenings of the past with flashbacks to his younger self.
Mark’s timing and facial expressions capture all the agonies and ecstasy of the moment. This is a part which will establish Mark among the best at Pitlochry.
Alan Steele is Lenin - the looks, the voice and movement as he realises the Russian Revolution has started and he has to plan his way home to his motherland.
Alex Scott Fairley as the highly intellectual James Joyce and Graham Mackay-Bruce as the incoherent Tristan Tzara are equally strong in their supporting roles, providing moments of seriousness and humour in a mix of political, social and artistic comment.
Playing their part in the mind of Carr are Lucie- Mae Sumner (as the librarian who becomes Cecily), together with Camrie Palmer as Joyce’s assistant and Gwendolen.
In the second half, Cecily and Gwendolen perform a delightful parody of the‘Mr Gallagher and Mister Shean’vaudeville song, substituting their own names in the appropriate places.
Carl Patrick as Carr’s butler is almost a pantomime character with Helen Logan as Lenin’s harassed wife making up the ensemble of characters.
Whilst it is not essential to know the characters in Oscar Wilde’s play, it does help in order to keep up with the
Graham Mackay-Bruce (left) and Mark Elstob (right). Picture by Douglas McBride tremendous pace of this production in which Stoppard takes the opportunity to express his views on art and war.
And director Richard Baron, together with set and costume designer Adrian Rees, present another successful production to be seen at this summer’s repertoire of presentations.
Mark Elstob is magnificent as Henry Carr, commanding the stage from the beginning as the muddled, elderly consulate official