https://youtu.be/vAqKCd0tlj0 (not a trailer but Sea Interlude when was new production in 2016)
This was a quite remarkable production and performance – the two aspects working hand in glove to the highest degree for a stunning and powerful theatrical experience. It was a psychosexual exploration of outsiders and a society that was very darkly illuminating – if that makes sense.
A bed, projecting at a sharp angle over the orchestra pit was the sole permanent and dominant piece of stage furniture. As the drama unfolded it became variously a place of refuge, of love, of lust, of mourning, of rest and something around which everything and everyone revolved.
The creative imagination of the director was shown from the opening scene where the inquest of Grimes became an ‘inquest’ – not a formal procedure in a court but an increasing number of villagers surrounding Grimes, some with virulent torches, shouting questions at him. And his slow-paced replies to their urgent demands, as well as suggesting, as the Pan Book of Opera did (which I recall from my teenage years…yes really, – Stanley Sadie et al I think…) which suggests his dreamy other-worldly nature, here is a very effective indication of him being suddenly woken up from sleep. Brilliant!
This opening set the tone of the production. It was not a formal trial but, as this scene unfolded, an increasing number of members of the Borough got involved to quiz/attack Grimes about his actions. In the Borough, the mob IS the law. The use of torches in the darkness was scarily effective.
The movement and placing of the chorus on the (largely bare) stage was brilliant. It seemed both random AND carefully planned. They moved as one group at times (like starlings in the sky) but each person was individualised and different. I recall this was done very effectively in a production at the same theatre that I saw of Attila a few years ago.
The stage was almost exclusively in shades of grey/black/white and on the floor, the white image suggested both clouds and sea foam – the latter very appropriate given the permanent presence of the sea which suffuses the orchestral score.
The colours were significantly important in the overall impact of this production. The vast majority of the Borough were in grey black and white with some women in a degree of blue. But there were some significant exceptions. Auntie was in scarlet while her nieces were, intriguingly, and exactly for what reason I am not sure, in pink/apricot ballet skirts and were almost permanently hand-in-hand. The druggy/hippy Mrs Sedley was in glittering red and orange which made her stand out very effectively from the drabness of the rest of the Borough (and it was wonderful to see the great Rosalind Plowright in this role. I recall her in Verdi at the ENO –wonderful!)
The costumes were also significant. Ellen Orford was in a masculine black and white suit, a clever way of suggesting not only her outsider sexuality but a reason why she and Grimes could not ‘connect’. Balstrode was also largely in blue which, given the apparent past relationship/potential relationship (actual or just desired and unrequited by Balstrode? – this was left intriguingly ambiguous) was a clever way of signifying his nature and status – he too was something of an outsider…
Sexual relationships were central to this production. Grimes’s new apprentice was not a boy but a lithe young man and therev was a clear sexual element in their relationship – although the degree to which it was fully consensual was left somewhat disturbingly vague. But the apprentice also seemed to have a degree of bisexuality as in his scene with Ellen, he sprawled back, arms spread in a very ‘come hither’ style – and he was wearing a vividly scarlet jacket which matched that of Auntie – so it had me thinking whether he was ‘supplied’ by Auntie to Grimes…and the red was on the same/similar colour spectrum of Auntie’s ‘nieces’. I just confess to being baffled by the dresses and why they were almost identical in appearance…
But the whole range of sexualities was apparent in this production. From the extreme femme ‘nieces’, to the strong femininity of Mrs Sedley, through the masculine and feminine elements of Ellen Orford, the ambiguous sexuality of Grimes’s apprentice and on to the somewhat desperately masculine Balstrode and the agonised masculinity of Grimes, all aspects of human sexuality were represented.
The build-up to the final scenes and they themselves, were stunning. There was really imaginative use, again, of hand-held lights, but this time of two different natures – the harsh whiteness of halogen and the warmer yellow of more traditional ‘lantern’ lights.
Grimes’s walk along the beam of light to his death could have been a sentimental and tacky cliché but here it worked and was powerfully moving.
A wonderful performance and production; I can understand why it was one of the productions that came back through public demand.