Last night I went to the first ever stage production of Aldeous Huxley's distopian novel of 1932 "Brave New World." This may sound like a joke, but it was a musical.
A very simple stage design and props that were used to great effect, while incorporating projections to emphasize an updated "virtual" element to the story. The best part were the costumes: Alphas wore grey long coats and neck scarves reminiscent of 19th century London dandies with goofy hair sculptures, Betas were dressed up in garish pink corsets and heels that a Berlin working girl would consider tasteless, while Gammas and Epsilons were dressed in giant pants that if you looked close enough were made from the material they upholster the subway train seats with.
I have seen and worked on some wacky stuff in the theatre before, but this production surprised me to no end. First off it worked as a musical, more than anything because of the ever present irony, which is a lot coming from me as I generally loathe the format; at the climax John the Savage appears above and behind the audience hanging from the lighting trusses and catwalks; and I even shed a few tears when the World Controller flatly explained why his Brave New World works so well, ending with the statement (rough translation), "Freedom, Art, Shakespeare, and Bach . . . Who cares for such things besides you and I John?" Additionally, the house was packed on a Tuesday night and the vast majority of the audience was made up of 16-22 year olds that I gathered were school groups.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say such a thing could only happen in Berlin. I like this city.
"Das Leben ist Laa Laa Laa . . . "
A very simple stage design and props that were used to great effect, while incorporating projections to emphasize an updated "virtual" element to the story. The best part were the costumes: Alphas wore grey long coats and neck scarves reminiscent of 19th century London dandies with goofy hair sculptures, Betas were dressed up in garish pink corsets and heels that a Berlin working girl would consider tasteless, while Gammas and Epsilons were dressed in giant pants that if you looked close enough were made from the material they upholster the subway train seats with.
I have seen and worked on some wacky stuff in the theatre before, but this production surprised me to no end. First off it worked as a musical, more than anything because of the ever present irony, which is a lot coming from me as I generally loathe the format; at the climax John the Savage appears above and behind the audience hanging from the lighting trusses and catwalks; and I even shed a few tears when the World Controller flatly explained why his Brave New World works so well, ending with the statement (rough translation), "Freedom, Art, Shakespeare, and Bach . . . Who cares for such things besides you and I John?" Additionally, the house was packed on a Tuesday night and the vast majority of the audience was made up of 16-22 year olds that I gathered were school groups.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say such a thing could only happen in Berlin. I like this city.
"Das Leben ist Laa Laa Laa . . . "
7 comments:
Are there any images online of the production's sets and costumes? They sound really neat!
There are three images on the web site of the theatre. GRIPS Theater Berlin. Follow the link in the title of this post. I will see if I can find anything else.
In the updated version of the story a soma holiday is a virtual world jaunt rather than a drug trip?
A sensible substitution, because how could you theatrically communicate a drug trip without making the play look like a Three Dog Night concert?
The Soma was still portrayed as entirely chemical and characters entusiastically eat up happy pills. The virtual aspects were placed primarily in regards to the promiscuous sex, taking the form of an imbedded chip and a receiver/engagement ring that characters in the first act nonchalantly swap to begin the explanation of the importance of promiscuity in the Brave New World. This is by no means due to prudism, much of the humour in the production comes from very over the top sexual play. I think it was to emphasize "unnaturalness." Secondarily there were a number of instances of communication and a vague implication of surveillance that also is rather cyberspace in character.
All the music was played live by a rather 1980's style hard rock/techno pop band that was placed above the stage. There were moments when the illusion was spoiled for me by long guitar riffs and overdone flashy projections that were very reminiscent of a hippie stadium concert. But this was a musical, and much of it is intended to be fun and funny. The reason why it worked so well is all the camp and overacting generally associated with the format was used to portray the forced and artificial happiness of the society.
The overall message of the story was forcefully portrayed, although they did put a twist into the ending so as to be not quite so depressing that you want to throw yourself off of a bridge.
How did they change the ending? You've already mentioned that The Savage(TM) offs himself in a manner orthodox to the original story...
John the Savage does not end the show by throwing himself from the lighting truss down upon the audience, although that would have been a spectacular ending. It involved Lenina being able to feel despite her social conditioning and further developing the love story between her and John briefly, then a final choice given by the World Controller. Do you want me to tell you more?
Sure, if it's not too involved...
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