3rd-5th February
Mansfield College Chapel
8pm
A famous film director once said that all good stories could be summed up by a simple plot: boy meets girl. However when the ‘boy’ in question is Julien Sorel, a carpenter’s son from the provincial town of Verrières devoured by his desire for social climbing, and the women are M. de Rénal and Mlle de la Mole, the story takes an interesting twist. It is Stendhal’s famous novel ‘The Red and the Black’ adapted by Tara Burton and directed by Julia Hartley. They explain that the bold idea of this adaptation came up over a conversation on Skype. A decision was quickly made to challenge themselves with what is considered one of the major classics of French literature. Their goal was to demystify such a text, strip it of the aura of complexity and lengthiness, show the true colour of what is an extremely entertaining adventure.
So there it is. You are immersed in the religious silence of the Mansfield chapel, dark at first. The stage has been placed centrally so that the aaudience surrounds it and is connected to the action throughout. The setting is exciting, but a question springs in one’s head: how will it be possible to stage the presence of such a strong narrator as Stendhal? Magically, he materialises to introduce the first scene. He will take you by the hand and physically pull you into a world where all are looking for what they can’t have. The trick works.
You are involved by the energetic Jordan Waller (Stendhal) who skilfully mimics improvises (mimics) many characters and swirls around the stage involving the audience in a flamboyant game worthy of the best commedia dell’arte. While Julien Sorel (Michael Brooks), Mlle de la Mole (Becky Moore), M. de Rénal (Abi Rees) battle through the social codes weighing on them, we are taken to the whirl of events that simply make life itself: the desire for love, power, revenge, until the crucial turning point arrives. Julien faces his destiny: finally the red fire of passion ends in a flash of black.
So let us sit down, relax, and enjoy this entertaining story of a society crumbling apart. Yes, Mesdames et messieurs, you have been served a deliciously shaken and stirred Stendhal’s finest, and you won’t look at the French novel lying in your dusty bookshelf with the same eyes again.
