On the way out of this show I was fortunate enough to meet a French woman who greatly appreciated the talents of the lead actor Tchéky Karyo (star of many films by Luc Bresson, as well as TV show The Missing) – who, she told me, delivered the beautifully written poetry with passion and power.
As advertised, there are aspects of English language, delivered primarily through song by a singer dressed as a soldier (tenor Edmund Hastings), in this music-theatre piece directed by Jean-Luc Revol, which is described as ‘a profound meditation on the trauma of war and the lads in their hundreds who never returned’. However, so much of the production is centred on the recitation in French of WW1 poems that if, like me, you have little comprehension of the language, expect to spend your time primarily pondering the costumes, set and physicality of the main performer, Karyo.
He blinks a lot, I notice, and performs graceful, gesticular swirls of the hands and sways his body in sympathy with the stanzas. He certainly looks the actorly part in his comfortable black jacket and long, elegant red scarf. A gauze backdrop is used variously to project images of a worn-torn landscape, and enable the sudden appearance of the English singing soldier. This performer has a fine voice, yet one that seems particularly posh for a regular Tommy, and the musicality of his delivery somehow obscures the words. On occasions the text is accompanied by a pianist, Edward Liddall, and then a violinist (Michael Foyle) arrives to give a beautiful rendition of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. These musical interludes coming as a sweet relief from the words I don’t understand. (There are translations available in the programme, but the font is too small and feint to be read under the dimmed house lights.)
Overall, this clearly is a high quality production, but whether or not it delivers a high quality experience will depend on whether you understand French, or enjoy the frisson of just being in presence of artistic quality. The French woman really was raving about it.