United Kingdom Edinburgh Worldwide Competition 2023 [11] – Phaedra / Minotaur: Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano), Richard Hetherington (musical director and piano). Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 19.8.2023. (SRT)

Phaedra
Composer – Benjamin Britten
Director – Deborah Warner
Set and Costume designer – Antony McDonald
Lighting designer – Adam Silverman

Phaedra – Christine Rice
Musical director and Piano – Richard Hetherington

Minotaur
Choreographer  – Kim Brandstrup
Set and Costume designer – Antony McDonald
Lighting designer – Jean Kalman
Composer, Sound Designer and Percussionist- Eilon Morris

Dancers – Tommy Franzen, Jonathan Goddard, Isabel Lubach

Produced by Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Tub by association with the Royal Opera Home.

Roughly yearly, the Edinburgh Worldwide Competition places on a present that feels prefer it belongs extra on the Fringe. Right here, common as clockwork, is that this 12 months’s: an exploration of the Theseus/Phaedra/Minotaur fantasy that tries to say some profound issues however finally ends up saying not very a lot in any respect.

A lot of it ought to have labored. Staging Benjamin Britten’s Phaedra makes excellent sense on paper, in spite of everything. It’s a dramatic cantata and, if completed sensitively, it may be a searing perception into the psychology of anyone at their wits’ finish. Christine Rice did her finest to take a position it with penetrating immediacy however ended up principally singing into the viewers with an anguished look on her face. Richard Hetherington performed the piano association (Whose? We weren’t informed) very capably, although there’s a particular discount in shedding Britten’s vibrant use of his small ensemble.

Deborah Warner’s staging was one thing and nothing, although, a shiny black ground with a white backdrop that includes the piano and a number of other objects shrouded in a white sheet. Phaedra seems on stage with a blindfold and gropes her manner in the direction of every object, revealing the Minotaur, Hippolytus and a chair along with her sneakers on it. Nope, me neither. The Minotaur and Hippolytus rise up and stroll off, Phaedra wraps herself in one of many sheets, the curtain falls. Sigh…

After the interval Minotaur is a dance piece to an unique (recorded ) rating by Eilon Morris, however what it was about is a thriller to me. Right here the set was black with a doorway in the direction of the highest and varied hand-grips in order that it might be used as a climbing wall. A number of scenes are introduced to mysterious titles, like Departure or Lament. A person and girl dance round a mattress, the Minotaur’s bull-head sitting within the nook of the ground. They’re repeatedly drawn to it however by no means attain it, and at occasions Kim Brandstrup’s choreography is little greater than some repetitious round writhing.

The rating is a kind of Boulez-meets-medieval-Celtic mashup, and the addition of an interval was an actual pity, breaking apart what little dramatic vitality there was. Couldn’t they’ve discovered a manner of doing a fast scene change to keep away from that, or did they only need the viewers to suppose they have been getting worth for the price of their EIF ticket?

Issues solely picked up within the closing scene, Deus ex machina, when one other male dancer seems and makes his manner, gracefully, athletically down the climbing wall in the direction of the lady. She and he then dance a strikingly stunning duet, which culminates in what quantities to a love scene. However what bearing did any of this have on the story of the Minotaur? Beats me. Perhaps I ought to have requested anyone from the Fringe.

Simon Thompson

The Edinburgh Worldwide Competition runs at venues throughout town till Sunday twenty seventh August click on right here for particulars.