This was a fascinating evening – not just because of the play but because of the production as well. When it started I had a number of doubts about various aspects but by the end was fully convinced by what they had done.
The performance took place on the stage of the theatre with four sections of seats in a circle around the edge of the stage, a maximum of 3 rows deep. This intimate setting allowed great emotional involvement – even for me with no word of Hungarian.
Re-reading the play beforehand, I was reminded how very prescriptive it is with details of costumes movement and sounds all being very precisely spelt out – a reflection/guide for the first performance perhaps? Other productions I have seen of this play, largely, followed these quite faithfully but this was not the case here.
The most noticeable aspect of this was the lack of the permanent physical and often aural presence of the horses throughout the play. Here they only appeared a few times – the first when the young Alan has his first traumatic life-changing encounter with a horse and rider on the beach. The horses were physically created by 6 actors/dancers, with very powerful twisted and constant movements. There were no ‘hooves’ and the only mask was a horse’s skull carried by the lead performer. These took some getting used to as they were not what I was expecting but they did in fact work as the performances of the dancers were particularly powerful and involved. I am still not quite surge of anything was lost by them not being the constant presence as instructed in the script. The horse ‘noises’ did not occur at all – there was just a drummer, set in the non-used auditorium, out onto which we the audience looked and from where the horses appeared. I did not think that this was an original and effective alternative to what was demanded by the script.
However, for much of the time, the horse performers were not used and instead we saw on a screen numerous shots/bits of film of running wild horses, some close ups. For me this did not work at all, being far too pointlessly and dully literal in the way that using actual animals in the rather awful film made of the play – albeit with a wonderful performance by Richard Burton as Dysart.
However, the depiction of the horses was powerfully and remarkably effective at the climactic blinding where 6 performers created a large entire horse (with a clear nod to the puppetry of War Horse). This innovation was an improvement on what was prescribed in the text as it brilliantly conveyed how the horses became one God-like creation in Alan’s mind and eyes. It was an excellent example of a creative director improving on the original text. But it would have been better if the red streamers from the eyes were not always and immediately visible but rather only appeared when Alan attacked the horse which would have tied in much more powerfully and accurately with the constant textual references to the horse’s eyes.
Sadly though, the great climax of Act 1 where Alan brilliantly conveys his orgasmic feelings when riding naked (i.e. worshipping) the horse with its gradual breakdown of language from paragraphs to animals sounds did not have the impact that it should have done, in terms of the performance and, framatically, almost went for nothing.
But finally the play, and the performances, worked their power and magic. And my initial concern that the actor playing Alan was too old and physically mature and not an adolescent entering puberty became irrelevant as the play progressed though – a testament to the performer I think.