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Bonnie Baddoo (left) Gareth Cassidy, Amy Dunn and Morgan Bailey. Picture: Ed Waring. The War of the Worlds Coventry Belgrade ***** This was an extraordinary production, wholly unlike anything seen at the Belgrade this season or recently. It is fascinating, gripping, dazzling, explosive, inventive, and original. With many touches of genius. It is also - in the first act certainly, less so than in the second, quite puzzling and confusing. Even messy. So much is going on: but just what is going on technical devices - large screens, brilliant small screens, constantly altering, superbly designed backdrops appearing on every side. Focusing almost entirely on technical devices (tricks?) it has attracted various appropriate and well-deserved comments: ‘a technical tour de force’; ‘a masterclass in the use of models, minimalist set and props’; ‘intelligent and unsettling’; ‘a multi-camera extravaganza’. ‘The performers move with choreographed grace.’ This sums it up quite fairly. In fact, the whole technical shenanigans was beyond belief, not only in its fantastical design by Abby Clarke and presumably her projection colleagues (there was nothing ‘minimalist’ about these full-screen creations, but they were also overwhelming and often daunting). The main character is Will Travers (Gareth Cassidy) - in fact most of the time he’s pretty batty, do-lally, confused, chasing the wall images and unclear where he’s going. The first act is ‘a touch disjointed’, it has been said. Well, that’s an understatement to put it mildly. Just what’s it all about, Is he a hero or just a loony? Those holding the cameras (just three other characters they periodically play as well) are simply outstanding. Really clever, polished, professional. Their memories for all the locations and adjustments are - as has been said - a tour-de-force. Each of them has various tasks, capturing numerous images of Will set against numerous backgrounds, as often hectically moving as still. But they also peel off to play half a dozen actual roles. The most extended is Amy Dunn as Will’s hapless wife Evie, most of them being frantically driven by him (holding a driving wheel in mid-air; several props are comically cardboard or wood). Bonnie Baddoo plays a series of rather nasty, snide intrusions into Will’s panic. The star for me was Morgan Bailey, superbly authoritative whether bizarrely sniggering (how does he do that?) or preaching distinguishably from a pulpit. Gareth Cassidy’s sheer stamina in constantly parading in sheer nightmare was a feat in itself. The only major disappointment - was it a failure? - was the failure to bring the aliens - dispensing their ‘heat rays from grotesque metallic tripods’ - into the picture more. We see them only two or three times, on screen. Granted, to be fair, they are pretty, even very, menacing, yet their general invisibility means it’s as if there were no tangible enemy. They might as well be imagined. Pete Brooks and Andrew Quick were responsible for fishing around in H. G. Wells’ futuristic novel to find what they could. They didn’t find much, but I guess this remarkable creation has to be hailed as an off-beam mighty success. To 21-03-26 Roderic Dunnett 18-03-26 |
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