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3 hours ago
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Kneehigh’s take on this medieval legend was first staged in 2003, in the Cornish setting from which the story of knights, love potions and infidelity arose. It earned cult status and a breathless following of balloon-blowing audience participants, returning to just as much acclaim for a 10th anniversary outing.
Adapted and directed by Emma Rice, here it is again, in all its giddy, fourth-wall trampling glory, with its army of anorak-clad unloved, and its circus-tricked mayhem. We are once again invited to blow up balloons for the wedding between King Mark (Edward Rowe) and Yseult (Nandi Bhebhe) while her lover, Tristan (John Leader), simmers with secret passion in the wings.
Well, I suppose some things just never get old. This is one of the greatest hits of the former company but the young crowd at press night is perhaps some proof that it still has sex appeal. But then, how can anyone fail to drink the potent Kneehigh potion as Tristan and Yseult glug back the magic elixir that makes them fall in love and take off for their staggering set-piece of aerial shenanigans? Or fail to become enraptured with the live band on one side of the stage, with compositions by Stu Barker providing accompaniment between a soundtrack of Wagner, Nick Cave and Roy Orbison, all spinning on the record player on the other side? Or not fall in love with the blend of circus, cabaret, comedy and tragedy, which all run ingeniously alongside each other?
There is wonderful humour from Yseult’s maid Brangian (Tom Fox) and King Mark’s spurned right-hand man, Frocin (Matthew Churcher). The king brings emotional depth; Yseult and Tristan add a physicality that is both comic and sensuous. The love story makes you cry, even if writers Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy choose the most benign ending (the myth has several outcomes but there is no brutal kingly command to burn anyone at the stake here).
It is a still marvel of theatrical innovation, a blueprint for dealing with an old story in a new way, bringing bathos to romance but without undercutting its power. Yes, it’s a revival of a surefire hit with the whiff of bums-on-seats ambition, and it does not feel as dangerous all these years later. But neither has it sagged with time. The potion still seduces.
