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Theatre listings >
The Bright-eyed Mariner
- Tour & World Premiere.
Based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
first published in 1798.
Director - Claire Pençak.
Choreographer - Claire Pençak and the company.
Designer - Karen Tennant.
Costume Designer - Crawford McKenzie.
Lighting Designer - Grahame Gardner.
Composer - Tom Flower.
Company - Tabula Rasa Dance Company in Association with Brunton
Theatre Musselburgh..
Dancers - here .
Tour Dates and Times - here
.
Seen to review at Brunton Theatre Musselburgh on 28 February 2004.
Run Time - 50 mins no Interval .
Reviewer - Thelma Good .
Much afloat tho' musicians try drowning it.
The Bright-eyed Mariner- Tabula Rasa Dance Co Production.
Julian Adkins, Peter Grimes, Iain McCulloch (with stripy shirt),
Rodolfo Rivas Franco and Charan Pradhan
© Kenny Bean 2004.
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Dancers, narrator and live music tackle this tale, told in a poem where
the Ancient Mariner stops one of three wedding guests and tells him an
icy story of seafaring, fights and storms where only one survives.
Director and choreographer Claire Pençak has chosen to use Coleridge's
original text, rich with archaic words and it could work. Certainly as
the Narrator, Peter Grimes, uses all his considerable powers to
keep us with the story and the meanings of the words. Also keeping us
on board the four dancers bring their varied and considerable talents
to bear. Look out for Charan Pradhan's eyelash fluttering bride
and the use of his bright yellow turban to play the part of the sun seen
at sea, indeed there are excellent individual cameo moments from all four.
It's the music that causes some obstacles - though there is variety in
its themes and tempo, there are long sections which sound the same. In
addition, and this is a serious fault, the players forget they are not
the main part of the piece and swamp it, as they dominate the proceedings
by their sheer and almost constant high volume. Even though Peter Grimes
is miked, his voice is too often drowned by crashing waves of music. At
the Brunton Theatre the problem was compounded by their sound system,
which comes across as long overdue for replacement, East Lothian Council
and benfactors please note.
That said, if the balance between music and the rest can be re-established,
the show has much to recommend it. There's revelatory lighting giving
us atmosphere including greenish icebergs. The design, with the use of
a simple box as ship and a large white sheet used variously to be albatross,
the ghostly crew, ice sheet and the ocean with a little boat. All bring
striking visuals to life, as do the dancers with Grimes as Narrator
well integrated physically into the action.
© Thelma Good 27 February 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast - Narrator - Peter Grimes.
Dancers - Julian Adkins, Rodolfo Rivas Franco, Iain McCullough and
Charan Pradhan.
Musicians - Cheryl Crockett, Anne Harper and Magnus Mehta.
Tour Details of Tabula Rasa Dance Company's production
of The Bright-eyed Mariner.
Tour begins
28 February at 10am and 10pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665 2240.
2 March at Peebles Eastgate Theatre 1.45pm 01721 722 991.
6 March at 2.30pm Aberdeen The Lemon Tree 01224 647 999.
7 March at 3pm at Stirling MacRobert Arts Centre 01786 466 666.
10 March at 7.30pm at Mallaig and Morar Community Centre 01687 460 039.
12 March at 7pm at Orkney Pickaquoy Centre 01856 879 900.
15 March at 7.30pm at Glasgow Gilmorehill G12 0141 3305522.
17 March at 1.30pm at Dunfermline Carnegie Hall,: 01383 314 000.
18 March at 7pm at Beauly Phipps Hall 01463 724 261.
19 March at 7pm at Drumnadrochit Glen Urquhart High School 01463 724 261.
Tour ends
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