Project Arts Centre
Just before the start of the opening performance of Death and the Ploughman, it was announced that one of its three actors, Gerard McSorley, had fallen ill with a severe viral infection only two days previously. His role was taken over by Owen Roe, who was obliged to read from a script. I will say now rather than later that he is already in control of the character, and it is clear that the rest will soon come.
The play itself is quite extraordinary. Michael West has made the first English translation of a text written in 1401 by Johannes von Saaz, a minor court figure in Prague, whose young wife died in childbirth.
He created a distraught Ploughman, in similar circumstances, to attack the figure of Death for his unjust cruelty. This is, incidentally, the first recorded personification of Death in western European literature.
At first, Death brushes aside the Ploughman's raging strictures. Without him, the air would be thick with flies, the land would swarm with wolves, there could be no life, the world would be without order. Since Death first emerged from Eden, no man has, or can, escape his end. The Ploughman then moves to a phase in which he seeks counselling.
But Death is a cold-eyed cynic. Mankind is conceived in sin and born in corruption, destined to disintegrate with age: how can an early end be tragic? Marriage is an alliance in which man is diminished and betrayed by woman. But the Ploughman believes that man is the noblest animal created by God, and that woman is his highest inspiration. Finally, a magisterial Angel appears to rule on the arguments. This translation is an eloquent one, filled with jewelled words and edged debate, a tribute to the original author and a serious achievement by his successor.
Lalor Roddy projects a gaunt Death in an altogether riveting performance, and Owen Roe needs nothing other than rehearsal to match him. In her brief role as the Angel, Clara Simpson makes a real impact.
The set design is an extraordinary concave structure sweeping from ceiling to floor. Christian Schiaretti (currently artistic director of France's ComΘdie de Reims) uses Julia Grand's precise lighting to achieve impressive effects, and delivers a stunning production of a play for all the Ages.
Continues to July 21st; bookings on tel: 1850-260027
