KOHLHAAS
‘If a man can break the circle of the world for just two horses, then it means that that circle can be broken at any moment…’
Brighton Festival opening weekend kicks of to a stellar start and this time with breathtakingly great theatre. Billed as the first ever Brighton Festival Production, and a world premiere, this startlingly spare production has been created for the recently refurbished Corn Exchange, and clearly displays the versatility and potential of the space, it is hard to imagine it working quite so well anywhere else.
Adapted from Heinrich von Kleist’s novella Michael Kohlhaas in an adaptation by Marco Baliani and Remo Rostagno, this the story of a man of good morals who is driven to extremes when wronged by a world driven by class, privilege and corrupt authority. A horse dealer taking his finest black stallions and forty of his other horse to market is cheated by a local baron on his way to the city. His servant tries to warn him that this is a scam, but fails and trusting, Kohlhaas leaves the steeds behind, promised that on his way home they will be returned to him, as fine and as healthy as when he left them. Of course on his return nothing could be further from the truth.
Kohlhaas is distraught when he finds his horses abused and in terrible condition stabled in a pig sty and that is the start of his journey to find reparation. Trusting in his wife, in the legal system and in the force of right he sets about seeking redress, his wife intervenes and in her attempt to see justice dies. He buries her, sells his home, sends away his children and for the loss of two horses, his world is turned upside down. His fight escalates in a way that, in a our current world, seems so chillingly poignant.
Arinzé Kene performs the whole with such intensity and power, a mesmeric presence on the stage delivering alone a word dense script flawlessly. There is innocence, passion, anger and despair as his world and his faith in justice fall apart. There is clarity even at the darkest moments of the story, not a word is thrown away or lost across the fast paced 90 minutes taken to tell the story. All this on a bleak stage decorated only with a simple circle around which the surface is broken and fragmented, symbolism delivered with a delicate touch. Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s installation and costume design works so beautifully well in its stark simplicity.
The whole is coloured by composer Matthew Herberts gently applied music and the sound design by Dan Pollard and Matthew Herbert. The strikingly impressive lighting and smoke effects, using just lamps, no tricksy tech or AI projections, is testament to the talent and pure stage craft of Jackie Shemesh.
Directed by Omar Elerian with both strength and clarity this is a stunning start to the first season from chief executive Lucy Davies where she is fully holding the reins, and one that promises a new focus on great theatre.
Andrew Kay
4 May
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange
Rating:
