BARCELONA at the Duke of York’s Theatre

★★★★

“The performances are exceptionally strong. Collins is impressive as the loose cannon, unpredictable and unsure of herself.”

Two characters, a world apart, are thrown together in Bess Wohl’s play, “Barcelona”. The cultural divide is as gaping as you can get but our first glimpse of them sees them in an intimate, tongue-wrapping clinch, awkwardly fumbling in the semi-darkness of a plain apartment in Barcelona. As they break away from each other, she is far from tongue tied. Everything is ‘cute’. She has clearly had too much to drink, whereas he has had too much to think about. This is preceded by a burst of ill-fitting, dramatic music which is at odds with the tone of the opening scene. Yet we soon discover the inconsistency is deliberate as Wohl’s clever writing unfolds.

It is a deceptive piece. Seemingly shallow but concealing some dark waters beneath its surface. A surface riddled with metaphors and dramatic ironies once you get the knack of spotting them. Irene (Lily Collins) is an American, washed up in the Spanish city in an extended bachelorette party. Manuel (Álvaro Morte) has come from Madrid to stay in the apartment for reasons that become clear later. It turns out she was the one who picked him up in the bar – a kind of dare almost. Things have gone a bit further than she may have intended, but for now she is more than willing to go with the flow.

We start out not really caring. What is the attraction? Why have they come together? The initial carnal fumbling is sexless, and the reactionless chemistry leaves us cold. She is intensely irritating. He is incessantly irritated. After a particularly leaden faux pas, Irene exclaims ‘I hope I didn’t ruin the ambience’. For a moment we wonder where the ambience is that she is referring to. Yet – as the layers are chipped away, revelations appear bit by bit. Like that game in which another square reveals more of the picture. The more we cotton on, the more we engage. They are no longer caricatures but complex characters; a lack of motive or intention now replaced by twisted backstories that inspire sympathy.

The performances are exceptionally strong. Collins is impressive as the loose cannon, unpredictable and unsure of herself. Her innate paranoia and mistrust run deeper than the Rioja that she is knocking back. Clueless on the outside but clued up enough to sense that something is amiss. Morte gives a startlingly solid performance. Possessing a European no-nonsense savoir faire he appears carefree yet, when left alone for brief moments, his expressions betray a sinister danger. They are both their own wrecking balls and we wait for the self-destruction.

However, neither can quite hide the excesses of the text that, even at a slim ninety minutes, carry a little too much excess weight, while the dialogue could do with a quick work out. Manuel has less to say but perversely he says so much more, which is where Wohl’s writing works wonders as the larger arguments appear out of the subtle magic of small talk. There is a gorgeous moment when Manuel picks apart Irene’s declaration of being ‘proud to be an American’. In a dismissive and heartfelt swoop, Manuel issues a polemic that covers a landscape of imperialism, displacement, ancestry even touching on genocide. The politics that seep into the arguments manage to sit perfectly with the personal; while references to the al-Qaeda terrorist attack in Madrid take on a harrowing emotional quality.

Lynette Linton’s tight direction moves the action neatly from its long night’s journey into day, the passage of time wonderfully evoked by Jai Morjaria’s lighting and haunting use of shadows. As daybreak creeps through the side window, self-knowledge (for Irene at least) dawns with the realisation that maybe she knows nothing. A Socratic paradox that represents a kind of umbrella under which the characters try to shelter from their own conundrums. Outside the apartment window is Barcelona’s famous Basílica de la Sagrada Família. Building began in 1882, but it is still unfinished. It is a fitting metaphor. The play, ultimately, suffers from a lack of resolution. It feels like an episode of a much greater story. An utterly enticing instalment, nonetheless. Another paradox. By curtain call, we feel like we’ve had enough. Yet we are left wanting more.

BARCELONA at the Duke of York’s Theatre

Reviewed on 29th October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE | ★★★★ | February 2024

BACKSTAIRS BILLY | ★★★★ | November 2023

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | February 2023

BARCELONA

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★★★★★

“the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins”

Writer, composer, director, choreographer and producer, Romain Rachline Borgeaud is the force behind RB Dance Company. Formed in 2018, the aim was to mix tap dancing with urban jazz, bringing the former to a ‘darker, more grounded, heavier place’. Borgeaud fell in love with Gene Kelly when he was a young child, citing him as the reason he started dancing. His passion for movement and music drove him to take the art form and fearlessly experiment, but at the same time paying tribute to traditional musical theatre. “Stories” was born, parts of its early inception making their way into the finals of France Has Got Talent (“La France a un Incroyable Talent”).

The mix of traditional tap with modern street jazz, urban music and rap has produced a simply stunning and sensational fusion. Thrown into the mix are production values that tip the scales. A synchronicity with lighting, sound, percussion and music stirs in its precision as well as its emotional punch. “STORIES – was born from a gathering – that of a pack driven by a persistent, vibrating, visceral need to move” writes Borgeaud in the slightly esoteric programme notes for the show. But while the performers are moving, we are motionless, rapt and frozen in our seats almost afraid to blink.

The show is not just a dance piece. Yet it isn’t musical theatre. It is cinematic in its scope but intimate in its language. The story follows Icarus – a young actor – under the oppressive control of his director. He’s desperate to escape, but unable to. There are obvious parallels with the Greek myth of Icarus, with the director being a Minos figure. The narrative follows an equally labyrinthian arc that is sometimes hard to unravel, but the beauty is that the interpretation belongs to us. There are references to Faust too, but also a strong link to the feelgood, golden age of the nineteen-fifties and the likes of ‘Guys and Dolls’. All coated with a fine glossy veneer of Film Noir.

It is all brilliantly told and despite being written, directed, choreographed and scored by the one man, there is a clear-cut collaborative feel. Loosely split into four segments: ‘Run’, ‘Stop’, ‘Fall’ and ‘Rise’, it is seamless throughout. Without pause, the coordination never misses a beat or steps out of line. Alex Hardellet’s lighting is an essential part of the choreography – the virtuosity of a concert pianist is required to operate the cues at the desk! Federica Mugnai’s constantly changing set designs are as intricately woven into the staging, at times flowing to the rhythm like big-budget CGI transitions. The trust between performers and creatives is an unbreakable bond. But moreover, the chemistry between the dancers is electrifying, the aftershocks of which crackle through our veins.

Tap dance as you have never seen before, brought high-kicking right into the twenty-first century. “Stories” is cross generational – modern but steeped in traditional virtuosity. It has its own vocabulary, yet there are no words. Instead, the emotional fragments of the story are swept up into a breathtaking music and dance spectacle. After seventy-five minutes we are quite breathless but would gladly continue watching for another seventy-five. Unmissable. In short, ‘incroyable’.

Tag Archives: Jonathan Evans

BARCELONA

★★★★

Duke of York’s Theatre

BARCELONA at the Duke of York’s Theatre

★★★★

“The performances are exceptionally strong. Collins is impressive as the loose cannon, unpredictable and unsure of herself.”