Mining the Middle Ages
Chicago Shakespeare Theater welcomes Kneehigh Theatre Company with ‘Tristan & Yseult’
Literature is riddled with complicated love stories— and in many cases, the messier, the better: Romeo and Juliet, Heathcliff and Catherine, Gatsby and Daisy. And though it may not be as familiar as some, the tale ofTristan and Yseult ranks as one of the world’s great romances. The story of a French knight who falls for the Irish woman he’s brought to Cornwall to be his uncle’s bride, this 12th-century legend — rendered most famously by composer RichardWagner— comes to Chicago Shakespeare Theater in a riotously inventive
version, courtesy of UK theater company Kneehigh.
Founded in Cornwall in 1980 by Michael Shepherd, a schoolteacher who simply wanted to serve local families, Kneehigh has morphed into an artistic collective with a sophisticated sensibility that has propelled it to national and international recognition. And “Tristan & Yseult”— the brainchild of Co-Artistic Director Emma Rice— has become one of its signature productions. Robustly physical, boldly impudent and set to a score that ranges from Roy Orbison to Nick Cave (plus a little Wagner), the production gives the time-shrouded Cornish story a visual and visceral kick. “It feels almost punk-rock in its irreverence, freewheeling through form, humor and truths,” says Rice. “There’s plenty of passion and plenty of violence, but it will probably be the airborne drunken tango that people will remember most.”
That bit of aerial intimacy is representative of the Kneehigh approach, one that appreciates theater as communal spectacle rather than a strenuously artistic and intellectual pleasure. “I have no preference to how a story is told— just the best, most exciting, most entertaining way, which often means less text than people expect,” says Rice. “I love music, I love image and I love non-verbal human interaction.”
While the appeal of a centuries-old story from the days of knighthood might seem to rest on its acts of valor, a romantic code was key to chivalry, and its reverberations are central to Rice’s take on the Tristan and Yseult narrative. “I think it is really a poem to love and an exploration of love,” she says. “We invite the audience into a world where to love is a gift and also a responsibility. And I challenge anybody not to have had experienced something of what we explore in the show.”