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ED2011 3/5 Reviews ED2011 Theatre Reviews
Little Eyolf (CalArts Festival Theatre)
By Julian Benson | Published on Thursday 11 August 2011
Mixing modern music with Ibsen’s 100-year-old play creates less of an impact than I’d hoped. Mostly used for scene transition, it came across as a gimmick rather than a device. The well performed production, instead, shines in its minor details – namely, the use of umbrellas and singing bowls. Used as crutches, danced with, and sheltered under, all the actors carry umbrellas in a neat nod to the closeted lives the characters lead; though, at times their use lacked subtlety and distracted from the performance – a closed umbrella would have conveyed the message in a less obvious manner. The singing bowls, however, with their extended piercing notes, struck home the play’s message of the damage caused by trying to resist change.
Venue 13, 5 – 20 Aug (not 8, 15, 16), 8.30pm (10.00pm), £5.00 – £8.00, fpp275.
tw rating 3/5
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