Bitef

Ono sto se deš ava

renesansno

\na seem predstavlja stalan

političko

nasilje

stepenica, u obliku piramide, i skrivene dveri teskih kontrasta, njena spoljnja simetrija je izvijena prema centra, odzvanja Vebsterovom baroknom konstrukcijorn reči i poetskih obličja kao kula-kosturnica s izobiljem intriga renesansnog političkog nasilja. Njeni velićanstveni stanovnici, kao sto su to

Velaskezove prilike u crnom i zlatu (Kardinalov crveni okvir daje prizvuk koloriteta, dok je Bozola, l alni » uhoda «, jedini odeven u jednolicnu emina), nemaju privatili život, cesto su prinudeni da se smenjuju i polako hodaju kako hi

predahnuli, ma koliko grandiozna hila njihova javna izrazajnost pokretima.

Ukočene kreature u užasnoj crkvenoj i drzavnoj hijerarhiji prikrivaju male ljudske crve tamo negde ispod svetačkog sjaja. Tako je opsednutom paranoičnom Ferdinanda, u tumačenju Ruperto Frazcra, dopušteno da izazove sažaljenje u čoveku, ni kako gadenje, za vre me njegovih poslednjih trenutaka, dok njegova sestra, vojvotkinja (Suzanne Bertish), oplakuje detinjstvo, čudljivog Antoni ja (Stuart Fox), materinskom blagošću, indulgencijom, podrugljivošću i, iznad svega, posesivnosću.

Ni jedna od Vebsterovih zastrašujućih licitasti ne moie, ni u najmanjoj meri, da spozna Ijudskost, seni, cventualno, izmuèeni i iskìdani Bozola, koji übija ono sto voli ì voli ono sto übija.

David Hayman nikada nije bio holji nego u ovoj ulozi, koristeči se svojim glasom na jedinstveno snažan i tunan način, ispredajući nit svog bledunjavog, übitačnog hoda oko kule i probijajuéi se kroz nju, da hi, napokon, okončao na najdramatičniji način, riseci glavom naniže, s najvišeg vrha stepenica.

(Cordelia Oliver, » Guardian « 21. 1. 1975)

nastavak rediteljsko-kostimografske Umaginacije, upravo kao što je ambijení njegova

kreacija. Isto tako, jedno \vreme, glumci isključivo pripadaju ovom ambijentu, oblikujući i čvrsto određujući njegove ideje, kao što to

čini opipljiva, mada istovremeno nečujna gospodarica ceremonije, Smrt (Gerard Murphy), Hi, pak,

lutka s lobanjom na g lavi, sablasno veličanstvena, kojom Prowse udvostručava vidljiv broj izvođača. Ritam je smišljeno usporen, pa ipak, kao groteskno lepa španska igra pavana, predstava se ritmički odvija, da hi dostigla snazne klimakse. Igre su do tog stepena stili zo vane da, kao sva krunisanja i svečane sahrane, postaju smcsnc, ali i začuđujuće. Reči su jasno i na najuspešniji način ìzgovorene. Usavršena arhitektonska struktura

renaissence

power

politics

The performances tare extensions of the director! designer’s

imagination, just as much as the ambience is his creation. For the time being the actors are almost as

much his creatures, giving form and substance to his ideas, as the tangible, though silent master of ceremonies, Death

(Gerard Murphy), or as the skull-headed lay figure, dustily magnificent, with which Prowse doubles the apparent size of the company. The pace is deliberately slow, yet, like a grotesque beautiful, pavane, the production moves in rhythm, quickening to powerful climaxes. The performances are stylised to a degree which ought, like coronations and great funerals, to seem ridiculous, but amazingly never actually become so. The words are clearly and, at best, sensitively delivered. An elaborate pyramidal architectural structure of stairways and hidden doors

in heavy chiarascuro, its outer symmetry twisted at the centre, echoes Webster’s baroque edifice of words and poetic images, tower-cum-charnel house

teeming with the intrigue of renaissence power politics. Its denizens grand as the Velasquez subjects in their black and gold (the Cardinal's red sash provides the one note of colour while Rosola, the warped » intelligencer « alone wears unrelieved black), know no privacy, must often shift and sidle for breathing space, however grandiose their public gestures.

Creatures frozen in a dreadful hierarchy of Church and State conceal the little human worms somewhere underneath the hieratic splendour. So Rupert Frazer’s haunted paranoic Ferdinand is allowed to move one to pity, not disgust, in his final moments; while, as his sister the Duchess, Suzanne Bertish, woos the babyish, petulant Antonio (Stuart Fox) with a maternal playfulness, indulgent, satirical, but above all possessive.

None of Webster’s frightful people can anywhere near feel humanity, except perhaps the tortured, twisted Rosola, who forever kills the thing he loves and loves the thing he kills. David Hay man has never been better than in this part,

using his orice, with power and subtlety, weaving his pallid, baleful way around and through the tower, and dying most dramaticalty, hanging head down from the topmost stairway.