The PowerBook @ The Lyttleton OK, here's my stream-of-consciousness considered view. Based on Jeanette Winterson's novel of the same name, it's a fully sensual experience (in that it's visual, cerebral, audial) that doesn't quite make it. It was the second night, and it showed; there were a few little, tiny production glitches that supended my suspension of disbelief. And Jeanette Winterson says (quite arsily, I think) "my work sits better int he European tradition of Borges and Calvino, than it does in the Anglo-American tradtion of realism and narrative."
There's no doubt that Winterson writes magically, lyrically, and often humorously. How this tranfers to the stage is a little, well, wordy. And despite her claim that she doesn't do realism and narrative, it's a straightforward tale of two lovers where one's married. Which gives some of us a certain sense of deja vu, since Jeanette had a very public affair with Pat Kavanagh, her agent and Julian Barnes' wife. And now, of course, the two leading ladies, Saffron Burrows and Fiona Shaw are rumoured to be having an affair. Not that I have a huge problem with writers using their lives as some kind of raw material.
Slightest accidents open up new worlds: themes of randomness, borderless worlds, interconnection and love abound. (On a completely separate thought: when I was a technology headhunter, we'd spend hours in client meetings trying to understand the clients' needs. Inevitably it always came down to two things, which I codenamed WEBBINESS and GLOBALITY - that's really what the play's about. Maybe that's what the whole world's about?)
With overtone's of phone/cyber sex and fantasy worlds, it's a little bit Vox , and probably cashing in on the millennial global village thang. It's slick (or it will be, by the end of the run), it's funny, not a little weird, slightly over-acted for a contemporary piece, and has an eye-candy set for the net generation. But the last word goes to my theatre companion, S:
"Sasha - thanks for organising last night. This morning I remembered that I
forgot to say that I found that manic dancing to Blondie between scenes
really irritating - what was that for?"
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